Daycare mamas who breastfeed

sarag0116

How many bottles are you sending with how many ounces/bottle? How old is LO? And how often is LO eating at daycare? Same as when nursing?

ns1

We're starting with 4 3 oz. bottles. One of those is a just in case bottle hopefully. He'll be there about 9 hours. (And hopefully he'll take a bottle for them! )

cowpoly959

Following this

apinkpelican

Think there was an earlier post on this. @ns1‌ are you having trouble w the bottle? We are still struggling and it's making me so nervous

sarag0116

DS starts Monday. He will be there 730-515. I think I'm going to send 5 bottles just to be safe. He only gets one bottle a day at most so I have no clue if he will eat every 2 hrs or 3 hrs. I can't remember what I did with DD.

PattyTC

We start in 2 weeks but my co-workers have said 4-4oz bottles. The last one is an extra and becomes the first for the following day. The pediatrician recommended 5oz bottles the first few days just incase. Then back down to 3-4 oz. (seems wasteful of that milk gold though) I'm nervous as we have given atleast a bottle a day since week 3 but suddenly she will have no part in it. Great! Just in time for DC!

ns1

KellyQ116 said:

Think there was an earlier post on this. @ns1‌ are you having trouble w the bottle? We are still struggling and it's making me so nervous

Yes! He's taken a whole bottle one and now usually does one ounce and then screams. I'm convinced he will starve himself at daycare. Ugh! Stressful!

apinkpelican

@ns1‌ that is want my LO does. 1 oz then she throws a fit. She's taken a full bottle only once from my mom and from DH once when it is the 'dream feed' where she is so out of it i don't think she knew the difference!
I'm guessing the first few days will be tough and that she will make up for not eating by nursing all night. But I have a friend who had the same issue and said the daycare handled it well. They see so many babies and will eventually get them to take the bottles. Breaks my heart to think of her screaming her head off there though!

ns1

@KellyQ116‌ I certainly hope daycare can figure something out! I keep telling myself they are pros at this! I guess I'll see next week!

bcnoelle

I went back to work at 4 weeks (3 days a week) with a nanny and my DD is a little over 8 weeks now. I have the nanny write down times of feedings and how much and I put together bottles but also am able to just leave more milk in my fridge. She has been consistently eating about 4 ounces every 3 hours, when she is home with me she is now mainly bottle fed because it seems she focuses better with this (she still nurses durinf dream feed at night and in the morning). I can't keep her on as good of a schedule as the nanny when I'm home with her. Because she was so young when I went back to work I was just feeding on demand and have continued. Going to try to follow a 2.5-3 hour schedule soon. ETA: my DD is bigger percentile wise (97th for weight, 99th for height)

sparklingdiamond

We started out with 4 bottles that were 3.5 oz.  There were some days where he would drink all four.  So now we have upped it to 4 bottles that are 4 oz (one has always been a just in case bottle).  He usually drinks 3 of them.  He is there from 8-5:30.  He usually eats the bottles slowly, so will drink like an oz and stop and then want it again later.  So he takes a while to finish.

Marcella05

I plan on sending 3-3oz bottles at first and visiting him midday for nursing (since I work around the block and my boss is lenient). Depending on his habits, I'll increase accordingly and eventually stop visiting for the midday feeding. If babies don't get those extra couple ounces they missed during the day, they'll make up for it at home, so I'm not worried about that. Once you've figured out what they normally take, the extra bottle is still good for growth spurts.

QOTR

For those of you sending just 3 or 4 bottles a day, do they just eat 3 or 4 times in that 8-10 hour period?   Or do they eat several times off of each bottle?

My guy eats on demand, but yesterday he ate 5 times between the hours I would normally be at work.    We're initially going to have a nanny, but I'm having a hard time understanding how this will all work when I'm back at work.

sarag0116

I assume the daycare teachers will offer the bottle a few times but to an extent. At some point if the baby doesn't finish it they toss it. That's why I'm sending a lot of bottles. I assume he won't finish each one but it gives him the opportunity to eat every 2 hours if he wants (which I highly doubt).

sparklingdiamond

QOTR said:

For those of you sending just 3 or 4 bottles a day, do they just eat 3 or 4 times in that 8-10 hour period?   Or do they eat several times off of each bottle?

My guy eats on demand, but yesterday he ate 5 times between the hours I would normally be at work.    We're initially going to have a nanny, but I'm having a hard time understanding how this will all work when I'm back at work.

He will eat a few times off of the same one.  He always finishes it before it's time to toss it, but just doesn't like to eat it all at once.

spinsoffresonance

DD1 started daycare at 6 weeks. When we practiced bottles at home she would drink 2.5oz. She had never gone more than 1.5 hours without eating. First day of daycare I sent 5 2.5oz bottles. She only took 2 and went 5 hours without eating! After a couple days she settled into 4 2.5oz bottles. That didn't last too long, they never said it straight but daycare had no interest in feeding DD every 2 hours. So they spread out her feedings and I sent 3 3oz bottles. She was still going no longer than 2.5hours between feedings when at home. Around 4months we went up to 3.5oz and around 6months 4oz. I also kept 2 frozen bags at daycare for emergencies.

danabsd

We sent 2 5 ozs bottles. She was there from 7-3:30. She ate before she went and when she got home.

Hrhodes78

With DS1 we send 5 bottles. The fifth usual did not get eaten so we used it for the feeding that evening. I can't remember how many ounces it was. ds1 went to daycare at three months old from 7am-5:30pm.