How many ozs per bottle?

sara622 · January 2012

DS will be starting daycare in a few short weeks. Crying I have been paying attention to when he nurses during the day and I am fairly certain that he's going to need three bottles everyday while he's in daycare. The question is...how many ozs per bottle? I've asked a few friends and some people say 3, some say 4, some say 5. Is there an average amount that a typical breast fed baby eats at each nursing session?

I plan to pump at work and send that milk with him the following day so I think it will become clearer as time goes by but I just have no clue what to send with him that first day. I don't want to send too little milk but I don't want to deplete my freezer stash uneccessarily by sending too much milk.

Thanks!

angela9602 · January 2012

Babies eat between 4-6 oz at each feeding. I always take a 6 oz bottle sometimes she finishes it sometimes there is lie 1.5 oz left. I always would rather have enough then not enough. What you dont finish can be saved for the next feeding after that it has to be tossed. I would recommend a 6oz bottle for sure.

sdo_082989 · January 2012

angela9602:
Babies eat between 4-6 oz at each feeding. I always take a 6 oz bottle sometimes she finishes it sometimes there is lie 1.5 oz left. I always would rather have enough then not enough. What you dont finish can be saved for the next feeding after that it has to be tossed. I would recommend a 6oz bottle for sure.

This exactly. My DD averages 5 ounces every feeding but sometimes it's 4 and sometimes it's 7.

JillianAshley6 · January 2012

Huh.

DD is 3 months today and I put 3oz in her bottle. She is exclusively bf.

She eats about every 2-3 hours. She does STTN, so she eats more often during the day. If I give her more the amount of spit up is incredible (she has reflux).

JillianAshley6 · January 2012

angela9602:
Babies eat between 4-6 oz at each feeding. I always take a 6 oz bottle sometimes she finishes it sometimes there is lie 1.5 oz left. I always would rather have enough then not enough. What you dont finish can be saved for the next feeding after that it has to be tossed. I would recommend a 6oz bottle for sure.

This depends on your daycare provider. Mine does NOT save breastmilk...they immediately toss- even though I have asked several times for them just to stick it back in the fridge and use it, or send it home with me (my pedi said as long as I use it w/i 24 hours, its fine...my supply is a problem so this helps). Check with your DC provider to make sure they will not just automatically toss it.

Brownie_222 · January 2012

Kellymom has a great calculator for figuring this out. Can't link from my phone but google that. I think 6oz/bottle seems huge, but I suppose it depends on the baby. My DD takes between 12 and 16 oz a day at daycare. Her bottles are 3-4 oz each and she usually has 4. GL with going back to work. You'll find your groove!

JillianAshley6 · January 2012

Brownie_222:
Kellymom has a great calculator for figuring this out. Can't link from my phone but google that. I think 6oz/bottle seems huge, but I suppose it depends on the baby. My DD takes between 12 and 16 oz a day at daycare. Her bottles are 3-4 oz each and she usually has 4. GL with going back to work. You'll find your groove!

Here you go!

https://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

jc4584 · January 2012

DD takes 4 4oz bottles while at daycare from 7am-5:30pm. I send 5 bottles just in case she decides to go through a growth spurt.

If I were you I would have a trial week. Prepare bottles for him during the time you are going to be gone and see how much he goes through. This way you can also save up some fresh milk in the fridge so you can start a rotation of fresh/frozen bottles. I like giving DD only 1-2 bottles of frozen milk and the rest "fresh" from the fridge.

drcolleen · January 2012

DD1 never took more than 5oz/bottle. DD2 is now drinking 2-4oz and 2-3.5oz bottles/day, if she eats more she spits more (or so I am told, I never give my kids bottles, that's DH's job). It's probably better to send more bottles with less volume and see what the DC provider says, after a few days you'll figure out what LO wants.

ns1 · January 2012

DD takes 4 4 oz bottles at dc (8 am-5 pm). Sometimes she finishes them completely, sometimes not. I always bring 5 bottles too just in case.

I got some good advice on the working moms board when I first started DD at dc. A few people mentioned bringing in more smaller bottles, like 6 3 oz. bottles at first just to see what happens, that way dc won't have to throw out a bunch of bm and you can judge from there what needs to happen. Plus LO should still have enough! I did that at first, and once DD went through 5 3 oz. bottles I up-ed the oz. to 4 and she seems good with that so far.

ebp913 · January 2012

I know DD is a really good eater but she doesn't tend to drink as much from a bottle as she will from me (this is very common). I would start out with 4 oz bottles and see how it goes. The best thing to do is send an extra bottle of milk but have that bottle be freshly pumped milk. That way you don't have to toss the milk if she doesn't use it and it will give you a better idea of how much to send each day.

My DD eat 3 bottles at daycare. The first 2 are frozen because I know she's going to eat them and the last one is freshly pumped so that if she takes an extra long nap or something and doesn't eat it, I can send it with her the next day. I label them in the order I want them given. This saves you from having to toss any milk and it works great when you are trying to get the amount sorted out. We are only on our 2nd week of daycare but this has been perfect for us. Good luck!

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