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Jenny952
member
sending milk to day care
Jenny952
member
I'm getting ready to go back to work soon and need to figure out how to send her milk to day care. I want to start rotating some of my freezer stash as well, since I have a lot of milk and colostrom from when she was first born. Tell me about how you prepare it for your LO. Do you send all the milk in 1 container with 1 bottle, or do you put it in individual bottles? Do you ask your dc provider to reuse unfinished bottles? And when you pump at work, does it all go into the same container? Yikes, there's a lot to think about!
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Re: sending milk to day care
I put milk in individual 4 oz bottles. I first put only 2 oz per bottle b/c he was still learning to take one. The CD provider is experienced dealing with BM, so they know all the rules about how long you can keep using the same bottle. They dump out anything that he doesn't take in an hour or so.
When I pump "at work" (I work from home). I usually freeze the first 4 oz. that I pump, because I always send one (my oldest) frozen bottle to daycare. I then save the rest in the fridge for the next day. I save this in the medela bottles that I pump into and I do combine until they are full and pour milk from these into the daycare bottles the next morning. I pump more than LO takes at daycare, so on Fridays I usually give only fresh milk and I end up freezing 2 bags on some days.
ETA: the frozen milk that I send to daycare I take out the morning before to thaw - so it is not frozen when I send it.
Good luck!
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I just send 3-5oz bottles and 1-2 oz bottle as "extra". If he is extra hungry then they use frozen milk that they keep there. They keep me posted on when they use one and when I am running low. I have spoken with them about leftover milk. They aren't supposed to give bottles again but they will send milk home if you request it.
This way I can send it the next day and mark that bottle 1. If it is frozen milk left over I usually have him drink it that night and I just pump (but this typically doesn't happen).
I usually use as much fresh as possible especially now in cold and flu season.
Good luck! It is tough figuring it all out at first but once you get into a routine you won't even think about it.
I use Playtex drop-in bottles and pre-measure and make bottles the night before. I do it this way so I know exactly how much milk is sent, how much is in each bottle and there is no chance of DC spilling my milk. Because I WOULD cry over spilled milk.
I number each bottle and when I use frozen milk (which I thaw the night before) I make them bottles 1 and 2 so they get used right away. DD always eats at least 4 oz within 4 hours so I don't worry about milk being left out too long.
When I pump at work I mix it all into one 8oz evenflo bottle. If I pump more than 8oz I store the extra in a medela bottle.
I've found the easier I make things for DC there is less "what ifs" for me to stress about.
At first, I sent more, smaller bottles because I didn't know how much she would take. I think her first day I sent five 3oz bottles. They gave me feedback and based on that I gradually increased her bottles to 4 oz. Now I send four 4oz bottles. She usually takes 3, but sometimes has that 4th if she's there longer or having a hungry day. (She's usually there from 8:30-9:30 until 4:30 or 5:30.) I always send the bottles pre-made and ready to go. That is how they want them. All they have to do is warm them up.
As for re-using bottles, they can try one more time after a feeding to get her to take it (later on) and then they have to chuck it. The state just started allowing them to do that with BM. Before recently, they had to toss it after it was out for an hour. So far, she's usually taken all of it. Sometimes she just takes 3 oz, and that is usually her last one of the day, so I just chuck it on my way out.
When I use frozen milk, I combine it with fresh so she gets a mix. I only do this in the first 2 bottles of the day (I number them with the date, which is mandatory, and then #1, 2, 3 and 4 so they know which one to use first etc.) That way she is sure to drink the frozen stuff within the 24 hour window of it thawing. Then if there is leftover milk (usually bottle #4) it is all fresh, and just becomes #1 for the next day.
When I pump at work I pump both sides every 3 hours. I pump into 2 bottles (of course) and when I can I combine them into one. (So if I get 3 oz on each side, I combine into one bottle because 6 oz just fits.) Then I label the bottle with a post it note with the date and the #oz and that is how I store them in my fridge at home. I take from the oldest dated bottles first. The 2nd bottle that is empty from that pump session is stored in my cooler with the full one, and then used to pump into for my next session, and so on.
GL!
I send 4 3oz bottles for my 8-10 hour days and usually 3 3oz bottles for my 4-6 hour days. I send frozen milk on Monday and then use fresh milk the rest of the week. I freeze the extra milk at the end of each day, So Friday I freeze all the milk.
With DS, I would send 1 frozen bottle each day but that got so confusing. It is much easier to just send frozen milk on Mondays and fresh milk the rest of the week.
My daycare also requires premade bottles and have to toss them after an hour, so Id rather error on the side of smaller bottles.
When I pump, I have a little bit of an oversupply so I tend not to combine bottles since I get 4-6 oz per side. I usually pump twice during the day, so I usually bring 4 bottles with me to pump in to. I also try to go to the daycare at lunch and nurse her - sometimes it works out, sometimes she just got a bottle and isn't interested.
Since she only nurses on one side, I pump on the other side in the morning. I typically freeze between 4-10 oz a day over what I need for her bottles the next day.