I have my soon to be 3-month old son in daycare. I currently put about 4 ounces of pumped breastmilk per bottle and he gets feed 4 to 5 bottles while there 8am-5pm. He is not napping very well there (to be expected), but I am wondering if I should start putting more milk per bottle. Any suggestions? The staff think the bottle amounts are fine- but I would like to know what works for others.
J.,
My little boy was born on 8/20/08 and he is taking on average 5-8 ounces of breastmilk per feeding (when he takes a bottle). You may want to start sending 6 ounce bottles for you baby and when he consistantly drains them then increase to an 8 ounce bottle. Hope this helps. J.
Hi J.!
I`ve been doing daycare for YEARS and had lots of babies through my home. It seems right about this age they go through a growth spurt and some of the day bottles may need to be 5 oz. I have a 3 mo. baby girl that just started and last week she started wanting another ounce or so about every other bottle. Try it and see what happens!
Good luck!
K.
That sounds pretty good to me, actually. My 6 month old only takes 3oz at a time while I'm at work. Just goes to show how different these kids are!
Here's a calculator you can use if you want to fiddle with the amount he takes: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html
At 3 months, my son was all bottle fed, and he was getting about 30 ounces a day. You may want to increase one bottle a day to 6 ounces, either before nap or bed, and see what happens. There are major growth spurts going on at this age, and it never hurts to give things a try.
It was always hard for me to figure out how much breast milk to pump for each bottle. She would only get 1 or 2 bottles a week in the beginning, whenever I had class, so I never knew how much was enough. If she ever got fussy after the bottle was empty I would increase the amount and then I just started increasing it by a half ounce every few weeks. She's been taking 8 ounces for a couple months now at least. If the staff thinks he's getting enough (if he's not crying after finishing the bottle) then it might be enough. My daughter didn't start taking naps until she was 6 months old. Sometimes she'd fall asleep for 20 minutes at a time, but I never really considered it a nap. What you could do is add an ounce per bottle and see if he finishes it. If he finishes it and seems happy do that for a few weeks and add more. Good luck.
that is plenty of milk for the baby. Breast fed babies eat more often but dont eat as much.
If the day care says he is happy and full after a bottle then he probably is.
I think I upped to 6 oz per bottle when my son was 4 months old. But you really have to play it by ear. Sometimes he doesn't even finish the 6 oz. I would say if your son is sucking the bottle dry everytime, maybe add another ounce and see if he will eat that and so on..
I'm pretty sure at 3 months they should be getting more than 4 oz at a feeding. My baby just turned 3 months and just started daycare. She eats at home at 7:30am, and then I send 3 bottles to daycare where she will be there till about 5pm. Each bottle contains 5 1/2 oz. And that is forumula, which I believe is more filling than breastmilk.
At 3 months, babies only need to have about 6-7 feedings total in a 24 hour period. 4-5 bottles during that time frame is way too much. Good luck!
I think my son was getting 6 oz per feeding at that age, but he also didn't sleep at daycare and liked to fall asleep in the middle of feedings--which meant that the rest of the bottle of breast milk was going to waste! I got around it by sending more bottles with smaller amounts. They would start with a 2 oz bottle and then give him a 4 oz bottle as long as he hadn't fallen asleep. Then I changed it to 3 oz bottles, and after a few weeks of him always taking 6 oz at feedings I just switched it to 6 oz bottles. He never had a problem with it after that.
Hope you find something that works for you!
R.
Just to be sure, I would send a bit more...what's the harm? Pumping more will help produce more milk that you will need anyway when he goes on his little growth spurts that all infants surprise us with. He might be on a "grow" right now and really needs more and isn't sleeping well because he is hungry. The change of being in daycare can affect his sleep, not being with you can affect his sleep, just being in a totally different environment can affect his sleep...different noises, voices etc. I would send more milk, then at least you know he isn't hungry.
If you can pump more it couldnt hurt to bump it to 6 oz and see if there is left over.... and increase or decrease based on his consumption. Ideally he should leave 1/2 oz! Then you know he got what he wanted. Every little guy is different. My 1 year old drinks about 4 oz.. my 15 yeor old at this age drank 8-9 :)
