Daycare/Breastfeeding Question

Sbrown721 · March 2016

I spent my lunch break today touring a daycare that is literally 5 minutes from my work. It's $355 a week, but they're all either around there or above that amount. I am lucky enough to have a few wonderful daycares in my town to choose from, but I am currently leaning toward the one so close to my work for one main reason. There is NO place to pump at work unless I want to sit in a damp, dark room in the back of the building that is just creepy and may have people walking into it on accident while I'm pumping. I get a one-hour lunch break that I can take at any point during the day...I haven't talked to my boss about this, but I am thinking that instead of pumping, I could just zoom over to the daycare during the day (splitting up my one-hour break into bits) and just breastfeed and zoom back to work. Is this wishful thinking? How many times would I have to do this working 8-5? My work has to give me extra time to pump AND my one-hour lunch break, right? So, what do they care if I go breastfeed instead of pump in the back room. Any advice/feedback welcome and thank you in advance

kosmo86 · March 2016

In my work manual it states they must provide me the space to pump but it also states that pumping is done on my break time (ie lunch break) and i can split my lunch up how i like

Shiva14 · March 2016

When are you planning to return to work? Your baby could be nursing every 2-4 hours at the time you return usually. Would your work be OK with you leaving potentially every 2 hours? Another thing to consider is nursing time VS pumping time. You can usually pump in 15 minutes. Some babies eat that fast, but some can take a full hour. I would also worry baby would get hungry and then have to wait to be fed until you had time to get over there. I personally can't always break at any given time if I'm in the middle of a meeting or project. That being said, if your baby nurses quick and you have the flexibility to leave whenever, it may work. I would assess during your maternity leave and then make a plan

KimmySchmidt · March 2016

It will depend greatly on when you decide to go back to work. The older the baby, the longer s/he can go between feeds, and the more efficiently they can eat. They have to give you time to pump, but they don't have to give you time to drive to a second location in order to feed your child, so it's going to depend on how flexible they are willing to be with you and your child. I wouldn't plan on it 100% but if it works, it works.

sid464 · March 2016

Definitely agree wth the others. It's possible but I think it would probably more time consuming/inconvenient than you might realize, especially at the beginning. Maybe once a day at your lunch break would work so you could still have that time/feeding with the baby, but beyond that it would be tough. And I would make sure you have some extra milk pumped for daycare as a back up in case you are running late for whatever reason.

Thurstobertay · March 2016

I didn't always do it (but I also had an acceptable pumping room -- doesn't sound like your case), but I worked maybe 5 minutes away from daycare so I would regularly pop in for a nursing session around lunchtime. They had an unused classroom that used to be for a room for older kids, so I also had solitude/privacy which was a big help. I don't know how I would have felt about things if I had to nurse in a room filled with other infants if only due to noise and baby being distracted by activity.

I really enjoyed that time. I missed him less during the day and it was a nice break from coworkers. Breastfeeding did weird things to my appetite so I didn't really miss that dedicated food hour since I snacked pretty frequently throughout the day.

jensou · March 2016

The only caveat I see is baby's schedule may vary from yours. If your LO is in a growth spurt and wants to eat, the staff might have a hard time keeping baby happy until your lunch hour. Or, if they feed baby on demand, LO might not be hungry when you come by.

Theres a whole thread you could run regarding demand feeding vs scheduled feeding.

Maybe if you pump at work on a break mid morning and afternoon - and nurse during lunch break it will be a good combo. Even if baby isn't hungry when you head over at lunch, you can still interact.

Its awesome you found a place so close to work!! Even if day nursing doesn't work out all the time, the shorter commute will be great

Sbrown721 · March 2016

Thanks everyone! Great points and extremely helpful! You're right, I don't know what my baby's feeding schedule will look like and I can't bank on being able to cut out of work every couple hours. So, I guess I'll wait and see how it all goes during maternity leave. I appreciate it!

Flowr4246 · March 2016

I think zipping in and out would probably cause a ruckus at your place of work in addition to the day care. I know a lot of centers frown upon frequent daily pop-ins from parents because it monkeys with their care schedule, which inevitably will be different from yours. I think a better option would be talking to your company about a more comfortable place to pump.

anneb644 · March 2016

I did it with DD for about 5 months. She went to daycare usually from about 8 to 5, I fed her at home right before leaving, then at 11 AM and 2 PM at the center and then at home as soon as we got back. Every feeding session took me about 25-30 minutes from leaving my desk to being back in my chair. However, it did break up my day and the interruptions ended up costing me more time than just the 25-30 minutes. I guess that depends on the kind of work though. I ended up working evenings a lot to get another 2-3 hours of work in before bedtime.

camichael84 · March 2016

Flowr4246 said:

I think zipping in and out would probably cause a ruckus at your place of work in addition to the day care. I know a lot of centers frown upon frequent daily pop-ins from parents because it monkeys with their care schedule, which inevitably will be different from yours. I think a better option would be talking to your company about a more comfortable place to pump.

This is my personal opinion, but after working in childcare for 8 years, I would never go to a center that frowned upon parents dropping in. Especially in the case of an infant. It's your child, you have the right to see them when you want. And, honestly, an open door policy shows me the center has nothing to hide.

Before I had DD and became a SAHM, I was an infant teacher. We had several moms (and in some cases, dads) that stopped by almost daily to visit, or more often, nurse. It was always welcome to me, and I was often closer with those parents than the ones that never stopped in. Sometimes the baby's schedule didn't line up with mom's, so calling in beforehand to check was beneficial to the moms. If nothing else, it let them know to pump during lunch instead of counting on being able to nurse. I don't see coming in every feeding time to nurse being feasible, but once a day certainly is.

hey_clever_girl · March 2016

Glad you asked this. Our daycare is also 5 minutes from me, and I was wondering if I would go on my lunch breaks to nurse and then pump during my morning/afternoon breaks. I'm still not sure how to make it work. I only BFed for 2 weeks with my daughter, and my goal is to go much longer this time.

ssimon621 · March 2016

I agree with the ladies that it would be very difficult to tie yourself to a consistent schedule for the baby when it can be so different at work from day to day. If you are pumping you can move times around by a couple hours, that wouldn't work if your baby is waiting to eat. It may also disrupt the babies ability to cope with not having you all day and expecting you to always come to DC and what happens when you stop popping in every day. My daughter also took a bottle every 2.5 hours until she was maybe 10 months or older, not all BF'd babies will stretch out their feeding times and if the baby is used to you coming they may not take a bottle which is a whole other bag of worms.

I think you should be able to speak with your boss and find a good solution to pumping in a private area. You could also consider pumping in your car during the day, there are adapters to work in your car.

And depending on your schedule you may be able to pump on your way to work or early morning before leaving, pump at lunch and pump on your way home so you only have to pump once during the actual work day.

bartonolivia · March 2016

They should provide you other breaks throughout the day other than your lunch break.

When I worked at a daycare moms would always pop in and breastfeed there babies. Usually only once a day though but it wasn't looked down upon at all if they came more! I breastfed my son there as well. You should probably bring extra milk just in case you're not able to make it. If your daycare has a way to communicate with you perfectly I would just inform them that you're going to pop in to feed him so they don't, and they can tell you if the baby is awake or not!

Thurstobertay · March 2016

@camichael84 - I agree with you wholeheartedly, whether it's for a daily nursing session or absolutely anything else at the parents' discretion, if a daycare center doesn't have an open-door policy I would no longer consider it reputable. When I was scoping infant centers with #2 there was a place that cut parents off after 9 AM and they justified it because they had a pixellated black & white camera system (which covered maybe 1/2 of the room) and I noped out of there as fast as I could. Daycare is a major expenditure, infants obviously can't tell you what's going on during the day, and as a customer and parent you have every right to drop in during the day. There are diplomatic ways to do it of course -- I wouldn't bring in my one-man-band cymbal and drum kit -- but still.

I wouldn't discount lunch nursing just yet. Every baby is different, but with both of mine, if I went any longer than 45 minutes away from them they would be ready to nurse whether they'd just fed from the bottle or not. Tiny tummies fill and empty quickly. They'd probably nurse in a box, upside-down, or dangling above a volcano if I were to offer in any of those scenarios.

drmh22 · March 2016

Regardless of what you decide to do, you will need to pump at least sometimes so that daycare has milk in case of emergencies. You wouldn't want something to come up (stuck at work, flat tire, accident, etc.) and them not have a way to feed LO.
I would talk to your work. They have to provide a private place to pump that is not a bathroom.

Caroline7703 · April 2016

Know your rights! Unless your in certain employement conditions, you're most likely covered by the ACA (Affordable Care Act , aka Obamacare) and entitiled to reasonable breaks to pump and a room to pump in

https://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/faqbtnm.htm

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