Help with bottles for daycare!

Sarah053009

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I am finishing my 3^rd week back at work and am still trying to figure out if I?m sending the right amount of bottles and ounces in each. Right now I send 4 bottles with 3-4oz in each. He eats about every 3 hours so sometimes I still have a full bottle at the end of the day. Lately, my daycare and the grandma?s have been asking if that is enough. Before returning to work we bottle fed DS once every other day or so to get him used to the bottle and never had an issue, he would take 3 oz and be happy. Now, sometimes he will stop at 3 oz and the next time he may suck an entire bottle down so fast that he is spitting up. He also has his hands in his mouth quite a bit. I?m not sure how to tell if it?s hunger related or more of figuring out that he has hands since he also has started grabbing at his hanging toys on his tummy time mat. He will occasionally fuss after nursing and once I get a burp out of him he is completely happy. Could they be mistaking that for being hungry still? I know it can take up to 20 mins for a baby to feel full, I wonder if he is taking his bottles too fast. I plan on bottle feeding him myself this weekend some to see how he does. I consistently only get 3 oz out of my left side and 4 out of my right, wouldn?t that be about what he nurses? So many factors come into play! Could it just be a growth spurt? He is quite a chunk and I know he is gaining weight just fine, I guess I'm just struggling with feeling like I don't know what I'm doing when all of these older women are questioning me! When does a breastfed baby reach the max number of oz they will drink, I thought that it wouldn't change after some point?

AmyRI

I sent very specific instructions to daycare with DS because he will constantly say he is hungry at the end of a bottle. He will drink until he spits up if you let him.

Through trial and error, I know he needs 4 oz or he will just fuss and fuss until you give him more. But, if you give him 4oz and then give him a pacifier and burp him, make him wait 15 minutes, he figures out that he's full.

As for putting the hands in the mouth, that is normal to do when they are hungry. It should subside a little while after he eats the bottle, but when he just finishes and still thinks he's hungry, he might very well stick his hands in there. We give the paci to keep his hands out of his mouth (we are very much discouraging thumb sucking. We want him to use a paci because it is a much easier habit to break).

Just because the women are older doesn't mean they know your baby better. Good luck!

walkercpa

It's hard at first to figure out how much they need. We started out with 3 oz bottles, then went to 4 oz when it seemed like he was still hungry at the end of a feeding. But at LO's 1st full week at daycare, they tried to tell us that that he needed more because he was "always hungry." It turned out that "always hungry" meant that he was fussy (and they were feeding him to get him to be quiet), or sucking on his hands. My LO has always loved to suck on his hands...and still does at 6+ months...if I fed him every time I would be feeding him 24/7. In fact, one way I know he is done BF is when he pulls away from the boob and puts his hand in his mouth. There is definitely a learning curve when you start daycare...once we got through the first couple weeks it has been good. Also, do you have the newborn nipples for his bottles? They are a slower flow and would prevent him from eating too fast.

hall_ky

My DS will eat up to 6 oz at one sitting and doesn't spit anything up. Sometimes he will only eat 4 oz depends on how hungry he is.
I also read that him putting his hand in his mouth is now a developmental thing and doesn't mean he's still hungry. When my LO is hungry he makes these soft noises and roots for a boob.