2+ BF moms

ebettley · April 2012

I am pregnant with my 2nd child and I wasn't able to BF long enough to send milk to daycare.

I am determined to hopefully, exclusively BF for at least the first 6 months of my LO's life. Can you second time moms let me know how you went about sending breast milk to daycare?

mymonkeykeys · April 2012

When I sent my LO's to daycare I actually had to pre-make the bottles and they would put them in the fridge until feeding time. They would warm them, but they usually won't "fix" the actual bottle for you. They do warm them seperate and differently than the formula bottles to eliminate cross contamination.

I found that it was hard for me to pump enough to build up the supply to send to daycare. Unfortunately, I had to stop because my office wouldn't allow me the time I needed during the workday to pump when needed and I dried up.

mamameg11 · April 2012

I think each facility has their own rules about this. With some chain daycares that we interviewed, they said we had to bring as many prepared/filled bottles as LO would need each day. They would not even mix the formula, if we were using it, the bottles had to be ready to go and they would heat them up as needed. We ended up doing a nanny for 6 months and then a home daycare, so we never actually had to do that.

mylittlesunshine · April 2012

Every daycare might be different, I know our provider isn't strict as far as either making bottles ahead of time or just sending bags of frozen bm which she will thaw as she needs them.

I was able to bf/pump till DD1 was 1. But, to make enough, I had to get up at 2am every night (even when she was SSTN) and pump. We premade bottles and if she had a bottle left over we would just leave it for the next day. On weekends when I would pump, we would freeze that and come Sunday night we would thaw out frozen bags so that we rotated the milk enough.

Also to pump enough, if she didn't nurse for very long at night before bed or in the A.M, I would try and get a pumping session in.

Good luck this time around!

cchill01 · April 2012

We could either send pre-made bottles or send frozen bags. I found it was easier to send the pre-made bottles. The bags started to discolor because daycare is in and out of the freezer/fridge all day long.

I would send 3 pre-made bottles and then I would send an additional storage bottle with extra milk in case she was hungry again. At the end of the day, I would take the additional storage bottle home and load it into a bottle for the next day.

I agree with others, it's really hard to keep up with the quantity of milk needed. I had to pump an extra session at night and over the weekends, just to keep up.

emberlee3 · April 2012

My daycare was happy to use frozen milk, but I just found it easier to send pre-made bottles. I would unpack my pump stuff when I first got home and evenly divide the milk into the next day's bottles. I used Medela nipples and bottles because they came with my pump, were easy to clean, and DS had no trouble with them. DS drank 3 5-oz bottles/day at daycare from 2 months until he self-weaned at 10ish months. I did have to supplement with a little formula starting around 7-8 months. If he didn't drink a bottle at all (slept through a feeding), I could bring it home and send it again the next day (for pure BM, not formula or mixture).

ebettley · April 2012

Thank you all for the information! It looks like I will need to talk to LO's daycare and see what they prefer.

masonmom12 · April 2012

mymonkeykeys:

When I sent my LO's to daycare I actually had to pre-make the bottles and they would put them in the fridge until feeding time. They would warm them, but they usually won't "fix" the actual bottle for you. They do warm them seperate and differently than the formula bottles to eliminate cross contamination.

I found that it was hard for me to pump enough to build up the supply to send to daycare. Unfortunately, I had to stop because my office wouldn't allow me the time I needed during the workday to pump when needed and I dried up.

By law, aren't they required to allow you the time needed, and if the company is big enough don't they also have to provide a room for it? Not being snarky, that's really what my thought was/is.

dotty188 · April 2012

I'm a SAHM so I didn't have to send my milk to daycare but when i needed to get out and my mom would watch DD I would always bring over more than she needed. Some would be in a cooler for easy heating in a bottle warmer and then I'd also send over some frozen milk just in case. Good luck!

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