How much breastmilk to send to daycare?

T - posted on 07/17/2009

Those articles were extremely helpful because I know it varies with how much my daughter drinks when we give her a bottle at night. Most nights, my husband will handle her bath time and then feed her with a bottle so he can have his bonding time. Most nights she seems to drink about 3-4oz while other nights she will only drink about 2oz so I think just as it varies during the day with nursing on how long she drinks, it will probably vary during the day at the nursery. I am more afraid that she will get more used to the bottle instead of nursing but I have to do what I gotta do! :-( Thanks all.

Paige - posted on 07/17/2009

1-1.5oz per hour is the general rule. Here's a good article about it: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkc... Watch out, many DCPs are not used to feeding breastfed babies, who are easy to overfeed with a bottle. Here's a great handout you might give them with some tips on how to bottle feed a breastfed baby: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bottl...

Unlike formula feeding you won't have to increase your bottle amounts very much as baby grows because breastmilk changes in composition and gets more concentrated.

Meg - posted on 07/17/2009

Rule of thumb: send about 1 oz per hour that he'll be there. Plus bring them some extra 2 oz baggies of milk for the daycare to keep in their freezer in case he wants more. After a week or so you will know exactly how much to send.

T - posted on 07/16/2009

Quoting Susan:

I agree with send as much as you can, even if you leave some in the freezer. In order to build up my supply I pump after every feeding, even if I only get an ounce. It helps to build your supply and you can put the extra in the freezer to send to school. If you are able to pump once befrore he breastfeeds, you can see how much milk you currently have, and then put it in a bottle to see how much he drinks. Of course it will change as he gets older, and it varries for each baby. Your baby may also eat more at school for comfort reasons. My daughter is 2 months and she eats about 3-4 oz. per feeding. We learned a lot of pumping and storing tricks while being stuck in the NICU for two weeks.

Wow.  Thanks for this info.  I never thought to pump after each feeding and will try that.  I really don't want to end up switching to formula so any other tips you may have for this, fill me in!  And thanks for, Cassandra for asking the question I was just about to post!

Susan - posted on 07/16/2009

I agree with send as much as you can, even if you leave some in the freezer. In order to build up my supply I pump after every feeding, even if I only get an ounce. It helps to build your supply and you can put the extra in the freezer to send to school. If you are able to pump once befrore he breastfeeds, you can see how much milk you currently have, and then put it in a bottle to see how much he drinks. Of course it will change as he gets older, and it varries for each baby. Your baby may also eat more at school for comfort reasons. My daughter is 2 months and she eats about 3-4 oz. per feeding. We learned a lot of pumping and storing tricks while being stuck in the NICU for two weeks.

T - posted on 07/16/2009

I am curious about this too. If I send my daughter to the nursery for 8 hours, how many bottles, would 4-5 bottles do it? I also have no clue how I am going to pump that much for her!

Naomi - posted on 07/16/2009

just take an average and a little more. at 5 weeks my son would eat around 3 - 4 oz per feed.

they can always keep the extra but if they run out then what?