Ummm serve what you pump? Wat?

jilicious

I always use the oldest milk in my freezer stash first, and we always give Alexandra 4oz bottles, now with a 5oz bottle sometime throughout the day.

Am... am I doing this wrong? I just read a post on Working Moms and it linked to a woman's tips and she repeatedly said SERVE WHAT YOU PUMP, i.e. if you pump 6oz, then 3oz, then 2.5oz throughout the day, or whatever, feed those amounts, in that order, to LO the next day.

Should I be doing this?

kate930

That doesn't make any sense. If your LO is able to get more than you can pump, then you would be under-feeding that way. My LC said the same thing, but she proved to be kind of an idiot in other ways, so I don't completely trust her. 

CalMum_Momma

No!!! I did not see what you read, but that info is WAY wrong!! Your pump will never get as much as your LO will, so to feed your LO exactly what you pump would eventually starve them! According to Kellymom.com you have to do the math based on how many times a day your LO usually eats. Please don't do that!

EDIT: I also use oldest freezer stash first, and freeze everything I pump.

jilicious

walkerkeli:

No!!! I did not see what you read, but that info is WAY wrong!! Your pump will never get as much as your LO will, so to feed your LO exactly what you pump would eventually starve them! According to Kellymom.com you have to do the math based on how many times a day your LO usually eats. Please don't do that!

EDIT: I also use oldest freezer stash first, and freeze everything I pump.

I'm not doing it, but if I did, that would mean LO would eat EIGHT ounces at one time, then three, then like four. I pump 4 times a day and am lately getting the bulk of my milk in the first pumping, and the rest is spread out over the remaining three.. But I would think she'd spit up most of that because hi, 8 ounces is a LOT

AbJams

If I did that my LO would never get more than like, 2 ozs a feeding. I don't understand that at all.

delphinus12

Course I can't find it now but I distinctly remember reading on kellymom.com that this is NOT the case.

That doesn't make sense at all!

ashnoelle

AbJams:

If I did that my LO would never get more than like, 2 ozs a feeding. I don't understand that at all.

me too. I couldn't do that at all.

But I don't understand why you wouldn't just follow LOs lead in how much they are eating... That seems strange.

LouRN09

I actually do serve what I pump. I work 3 12-hour shifts each week. In the beginning it was trial and error b/c we werent sure how many oz DS would need in each bottle b/c I EBF. But, we soon figured out he takes 4oz in each bottle and is satisified. To cover the first early morning feeding (DH does this on the days I work)all the way until I get home, I initially calculated 8 4oz bottles. This was for every 2 hour feedings which DS was doing at home. This meant I needed 32 oz of pumped milk to put into bottles. (i know this sounds like alot b/c he would also nurse 2x a day when I got home, but its what he needed!)

Low and behold I was able to pump exactly 32oz on those days. I would pump when I got up (at 5:30am) and get 11-12 oz total; pump again around 10-11 and get another 7-8 oz; pump again at lunch and get about 8 oz; and try again later in the afternoon/early evening and get another 4-5oz. I would use this milk and divide it up into his 8 4oz bottles. When I read "serve what you pump", I never took it LITERALLY. Just to basically use what you pumped the previous work day for that next days bottles. If for some reason I couldnt get all 32oz pumped, then I would pull from my freezer stash. Now that DS STTN, we tend to have 1 (sometimes 2) bottles leftover that I will either save for the next work day or freeze.

So in my case, serving what you pump isnt crazy! Now that we have reached the 3 month mark, I am starting to pull more from my freezer stash so that it doesnt go bad.

jilicious

LouRN09:

I actually do serve what I pump. I work 3 12-hour shifts each week. In the beginning it was trial and error b/c we werent sure how many oz DS would need in each bottle b/c I EBF. But, we soon figured out he takes 4oz in each bottle and is satisified. To cover the first early morning feeding (DH does this on the days I work)all the way until I get home, I initially calculated 8 4oz bottles. This was for every 2 hour feedings which DS was doing at home. This meant I needed 32 oz of pumped milk to put into bottles. (i know this sounds like alot b/c he would also nurse 2x a day when I got home, but its what he needed!)

Low and behold I was able to pump exactly 32oz on those days. I would pump when I got up (at 5:30am) and get 11-12 oz total; pump again around 10-11 and get another 7-8 oz; pump again at lunch and get about 8 oz; and try again later in the afternoon/early evening and get another 4-5oz. I would use this milk and divide it up into his 8 4oz bottles. When I read "serve what you pump", I never took it LITERALLY. Just to basically use what you pumped the previous work day for that next days bottles. If for some reason I couldnt get all 32oz pumped, then I would pull from my freezer stash. Now that DS STTN, we tend to have 1 (sometimes 2) bottles leftover that I will either save for the next work day or freeze.

So in my case, serving what you pump isnt crazy! Now that we have reached the 3 month mark, I am starting to pull more from my freezer stash so that it doesnt go bad.

This woman was saying to literally serve what you pump, when you pump, meaning in your case, LO would take an 11oz bottle, then an 8oz bottle, another 8oz bottle, and then a 5oz bottle.

Which just, no. LOL

RadicalDreamer143

walkerkeli:

No!!! I did not see what you read, but that info is WAY wrong!! Your pump will never get as much as your LO will, so to feed your LO exactly what you pump would eventually starve them! According to Kellymom.com you have to do the math based on how many times a day your LO usually eats. Please don't do that!

EDIT: I also use oldest freezer stash first, and freeze everything I pump.

Liam never drains me when he BFs... I pump 9-10oz a serving for my first two pumping sessions.  So yeah, it makes no sense, but you won't be starving your child by serving what you pump necessarily (mine would drown, LOL).