Need daycare advice

valerieanne9015 · April 2012

DD is breastfed most of the time at home but occasionally has a bottle. When she does it's 4 oz and she will usually scream for about 30 secs when she drains it, but then is fine once she realizes she's not hungry anymore.

Well the last few weeks she's been eating a ridiculous amount at daycare. Yesterday, she took 5 bottles, I think 3 were 5 oz and 2 were 4 oz. She's only there for 9 hours, I don't see how it's physically possible for her to eat that much!! Anyway, a few times lately DH has had to bottle feed her all day while I'm away and she had no problem drinking only 4 oz at a time. DH brings her and picks her up from daycare everyday. I had him ask them what she acts like when they give her more than the 4 oz/feeding I told them to give her (a few times she's taken down 8oz in a feeding!!!!! with no spit up!!!) They said they give her the 4 oz, then if she's screaming they try distracting with toys, pacifier, swing, etc. and nothing works. She will go like that for 30 min and the only thing that calms her down is more milk, so they give her more. I asked her pedi about the amount she's eating at DC and he didn't seem too concerned. I just think it's odd that she has no problem with 4oz/feeding at home, but screams for more, and will take down 8oz like it's nothing, at daycare.

I want to talk to them about not feeding her so much but I don't know what to say. Do I tell them to let her CIO if she's screaming for 30 min after a bottle? Should I tell them to do 5oz/feeding to see if she will be happy with that and maybe take down less bottles? I personally think she has them trained and knows that when she's there and she screams long enough she will get more, when at home she won't. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!!

FYI: I love the daycare center, they really are great so no complaints about the place or how DD is treated there! I send a bunch of frozen milk every week and they just let DH know when they need more. I was thinking, maybe I should start sending daily to try to limit the amount they have?

HBear19 · April 2012

Not sure that I really have advice... That does sound like a lot of milk!

My DD is in daycare for about 10 hours and I had Been sending 4 4 oz bottles. Sometimes she only took 3, other times she drank all of it. Recently they asked me to start bringing more because she seemed hungry.

So now I send 4 4 oz bottles and 1 2 oz botle. Sometimes she drinks it all, sometimes she drinks only 3 or 4 bottles. I'm glad to send the extra though because I have found that the more she drinks there, the less she nurses overnight. She just started sleeping in her crib and eats only once or twice a night.

Does your DD nurse a lot at night? If not maybe she makes up for that at day care?

amyjoy18 · April 2012

DS has been taking more in his bottles at daycare lately. He had previously been taking about 16oz/day and recently he's been taking closer to 20. One thing that we started to do was put more in his bottles. So instead of 4-40z bottles, we do 2 6 oz bottles and 1-4 oz bottle--and an extra 4 oz bottle if he gets hungry again before I get there (he eats this about half the time).

The other thing to take into consideration is that at home, when she's not eating from a bottle she's nursing from you. So you have no idea how much she's eating. She could be taking in 8oz, so when she is a little hungry later, a 4 oz bottle is enough.

Then there is also the consideration that they may be mistaking her crying for any reason as a hunger cue.

ETA: Just wanted to add that all babies are different too. My DD never took more than 4.5 oz in a bottle at a time--and even then it took her a long time to finish it sometimes.

And-kellymom.com has a great handout for daycares on bottle-feeding a BF baby that I took to daycare when DS started.

Chan4dra04 · April 2012

Hey! I have no advice, just wanted to say that I am in the exact same boat! Same ounces, same amount of hours, etc.

My SIL watches DD and gave her 5 bottles of BM, totaling 21oz in 6 hours on Monday. Now, I don't seem to be taking it as calmly as you. I'm flipping pissed. So, I'll be watching this thread to see how maybe I should handle the situation. In my head, SIL has one more day of watching DD until she goes to daycare next week, and I'm thinking of cancelling bc I'm so pissed. I strictly gave instructions that if she is screaming uncontrollably, call me and I'm 10 min away, I'll come home and assess the situation, and nurse her if need be. But, no matter if it's SIL or daycare provider, I want to be consulted before anything extra or new is put into my daughter.

So there! lol. I'll calm down now.

I hope we get some advice on this one. I, too, will be sending a limited amount of milk with maybe a 2.5oz extra to hold her off during the 10min that it would take for me to come get her and nurse her. And, 2.5oz can easily be pumped to replace what extra she was given without affecting my regulated supply.

smilelari · April 2012

How is she napping at daycare? My guess is that she's tired rather than hungry. Depending on what your answer is to the how is she napping question, I'd probably skip trying to *fix* the obvious overfeeding problem and go for trying to work out the less obvious sleeping issue instead which will fix 2 issues.

FWIW, the normal intake range for a BF baby (all the way up to a year old) is 19-30 oz per 24 hour period, so 23 oz in 9 hours is a lot, even if baby is STTN as I would assume there are at least 2-3 more feedings at home.

Also FWIW, I send prepared bottles. I send 4 four oz bottles per day and magically that's exactly what LO eats I started off with 3 oz bottles. They told me she still seemed hungry so I upped it to 4. When we up it to 5 we'll probably start sending 3 bottles instead of 4.

valerieanne9015 · April 2012

I hadn't even thought about the napping situation. She's really touch and go when it comes to napping, sometimes it's 2 hours sometimes only 15 min. She gets her best naps in the swing, unfortunately there are now 5 babies younger than her in the room so she's not the "baby" anymore and has to share the swing for naps. I'm sure that's not helping.

I know it's a ridiculous amt she's taking in at daycare, especially since I usually nurse her 3 times a day at home as well. At first I thought it was just a growth spurt because she had stopped STTN, to eat, for a couple weeks, but she's back on her regular STTN schedule (knock on wood) so I'm thinking it's not growth related. She's kinda becoming a little chunk butt too so it really worries me that she's eating too much. I'm probably going to have to leave work one day and go talk to them to figure something out, since DH doesn't get it as being a problem.

Thanks for all the advice so far, still open for more though!!

Jenny952 · April 2012

No advice, but wow, that seems like she's eating a lot. Are you able to pump that much milk? Kudos to you if you do!!!! I can barely squeak out 15 oz a day, which thankfully is just what DD needs. Good luck, that sounds tough. I agree that you should probably go to daycare and talk to them in person instead of sending messages through DH. Sometimes they just don't get it or don't know the right things to ask.

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