How to: Daycare
jlsimon56
member
LO will start daycare in a few weeks. I have been pumping to build up a stash and to give LO a bottle every few days so she gets used to it. I currently have ~40oz frozen. I put the BM directly in the freezer unless it's for the bottle she gets that day. So, I have nothing stored in the fridge.
My question is, what BM do I send to daycare with her? The oldest frozen BM? The BM that I pump the day before? A combination?
Bonus question: How do you aliquot the BM? Do you send one container with the entire day's BM and have the teachers pour it into bottles? Send bottles with BM already in it? (If so, how much?) I don't want to waste any but I'm don't want to be annoying. I haven't figured out how much LO takes in during one feeding.
THANK YOU!!
Re: How to: Daycare
DS will start daycare in 2 weeks and so I have been thinking through a lot of this. Our DC provides formula (all their current infants are FF so we will have to work through a lot) so they want everybody to just keep 4 or 5 bottles at the center - they sterilize them every night. Because of this, I was thinking I may just bring in the amount for the day in one container. If it doesn't work out, then I will just make the bottles at home and bring them in every day.
DS is almost 7 weeks right now and he drinks 2.5oz every 2-3 hours (10oz a day).
I send frozen BM on Mondays. The milk I pump at work is the next day's bottled milk (i.e. Monday pumped is Tuesday bottles, Tuesday pumped is Wednesday bottles, etc). Friday's pumped milk goes directly into the freezer. Monday's frozen BM is the oldest dated milk from the freezer. I send 3 5oz bottles to daycare so the BM is already allocated.
Depending how old your LO is will depend on how much you send to DC. My DS was 12 weeks when he started DC and I sent him with 3 4oz bottles and 3 weeks later the DCP said to up it to 5oz bottles bc he was still hungry. MY DCP said that if he didn't finish his entire bottle of BM, they would save it for the next feeding. He's really only left 1/2 oz in the bottles and they've just tossed it, which I'm okay with bc I haven't had any supply issues.
If you haven't really given your LO bottles, I would do so immediately. The last thing you want is for your LO to refuse a bottle on the first day of DC and you have to leave work early to go feed. Prior to going to DC, my DH was giving DS at least one bottle of BM a day.
i prefer to send fresh and use frozen when i don't have enough fresh.
so, 3-4 days before daycare starts, i would start keeping pumped milk in the fridge instead of sending directly to the freezer.
our daycare requires that bottles are pre-made at home. they will warm them there, but they will not measure and pour to make them.
in the beginning, i sent 5 bottles that were 3 oz each. Some days all were taken, and other days there'd be one leftover. That leftover one I'd label with a #1 sticker and it became the first used bottle the following day.
Then it became 4 bottles that were 3.5oz each, and now 3 bottles that are 4 oz each (she gets lots of foods now too).
I do the same as the PPs in regards to rotating the freezer stash - old, previously frozen milk on Monday (I take it out Sunday morning and it is fully thawed by Monday morning to be poured into bottles. Don't thaw too early, as thawed milk is only good for 24hrs after it finishes thawing). Milk pumped at work is for the next day, except all of Friday gets frozen.
Ask your daycare whether or not they will pour bottles for you. Our center wants "premixed" bottles (most are FF) sent every day. I send five 4oz bottles every day, but DS only takes 3 or 4. It was an experiment to figure out how much DS took in each bottle. He overeats when it's out of a bottle and ends up spitting up, so it took me a couple of days to figure out how much he needed to be full without giving him so much he spit up. I think the amount is definitely baby-dependent, so I'd experiment with it.
I send two freshes and two frozens on Monday. They will then use the freshes first and have the frozens there as back up. Generally DS will only drink 2 bottles daily, so we will continue to send freshes the rest of the week. We then instruct his teachers to use up the frozens on Friday. This keeps my frozen stash rotating. I pump enough where I could send all fresh, but this system seems to work for us.
My DCP lets me send frozen bags. I took a tupperware container, wrote his name on it (all the bags have his name, amount, and date on it), and put it in the freezer. I send 4 bags a day - he usually only takes 3, so there is usually left over. I send 2 recent bags (3 if I can get it) and 1-2 older bags a day (2-3 weeks old). My recent bags are 5 oz now, and the older bags are 4... so I also send 1 oz sticks to mix with those. At first, they were using the older stuff first (center policy), and I asked them to start using the recent stuff first so he gets my antibodies from whatever I've been exposed to recently! Oh, and I do freeze the recent stuff, just in case he doesn't take it (some days, he only eats twice).
The bottles stay at DC - they prefer this, and then I can keep stuff frozen, and if it doesn't get used, it's okay! :-)
Picture courtesy of Heidi Keene Photography