Daycare fail

[rbp]

Sept 30, 2014 15:27:20 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

Sept 30, 2014 15:25:23 GMT -5 rbp said:

They feed him 3 oz at a time, but he had only ever had one bottle at a time. (I'm not sure why I went down from 3 oz to 2...I guess because a bottle every 2 hours seemed frequent?)

How often does he nurse? Have you ever done a weighed feeding?

ETA: I thinking moving to 3oz bottles is fine, especially if that's what he's used to with your mom/MIL. 4oz still seems like too much to me though. 

He nurses ~10x/day: every two hours during the day and twice MOTN. I have not done a weighted feed because he's gaining weight appropriately, so I figured I'd do trial and error with his bottles. Is that wrong?

[catsarecute]

Don't feel bad at all! The daycare routine takes some getting used to. I think I did everything "wrong" my first trial run day. You will get the hang of it very fast!

[undecidedowl]

I'm glad you didn't miss an opportunity to pick up some AE jeggings. Love them. And you'll figure out the bottle thing, it's all trial and error.

[SJ]

Sept 30, 2014 17:03:10 GMT -5 ribollita said:

I am a total disbeliever in the 1oz/hour rule to the point it makes me ragey. I starved my firstborn due to it. With my second I was smarter and if she wanted to eat 18oz of breast milk at DC she was able to do so.

DD eats 16oz at DC and she is there roughly 8-4

[mae141]

Sept 30, 2014 15:16:19 GMT -5 rbp said:

I nursed him at 6:45 and 8:30 am. I thought 16-20 oz while at daycare would be a lot, too, but I'm reluctant to tell them how to do their jobs. Maybe y'all are right that his consumption will level off as he becomes accustomed to daycare and less fussy? He's only 8w and his napping is erratic; I'm hoping his naptimes start to consolidate in the next few weeks.

I don't expect to pump 20 oz in a work day. Since he's only going to daycare part time through December, I think I can manage to EBF until then. I'll reevaluate supplementing in January if he's still eating this much. I don't want to make myself crazy with MOTN pumping sessions and such.

Thanks for the reassurance, ladies!

ETA: the only time he refused a bottle was once with H, and I think maybe H just didn't know what he was doing? He's been fine with my mom, MIL, and even me bottle feeding him.

My daycare lady thought I was nuts for sending in an once for each hour I'd be away and was telling me to send more after the first day. After a few conversations with her, I realized she had no idea about anything breastfeeding related. She was pretty surprised I was sending BM instead of formula, and she was going off what she was used to kids having in formula. After I got her to start doing paced bottle feeding (she learned the hard way- DD threw up all over her after eating too much too fast, even though I warned her that would happen), she said that the bottles were perfect. It takes a little trial and error, but it's important to communicate with DC to make sure you're both on the same page.  

[Brie]

I will just chime in to add that C ate a lot at daycare too, once he stopped rejecting the bottle. 16-24 ounces at his peak. I pumped most of it but eventually supplemented a bottle a day too. Nursed him until he self weaned at 17 months.

He still eats a lot at 2. He's a big kid, and a big eater. Some kids just eat a lot and that can start as babies, IMO.

[Brie]

Sept 30, 2014 17:03:10 GMT -5 ribollita said:

I am a total disbeliever in the 1oz/hour rule to the point it makes me ragey. I starved my firstborn due to it. With my second I was smarter and if she wanted to eat 18oz of breast milk at DC she was able to do so.

Completely agree. Kellymom can suck it.

[Ashley&Scott]

Sept 30, 2014 16:14:10 GMT -5 rbp said:

Sept 30, 2014 15:27:20 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

How often does he nurse? Have you ever done a weighed feeding?

ETA: I thinking moving to 3oz bottles is fine, especially if that's what he's used to with your mom/MIL. 4oz still seems like too much to me though. 

He nurses ~10x/day: every two hours during the day and twice MOTN. I have not done a weighted feed because he's gaining weight appropriately, so I figured I'd do trial and error with his bottles. Is that wrong?

No you're not doing it wrong, you're doing great. It is all trial & error, it was for me too. (M started with eight 1pz bottles because he was a bottle refuser)

I would still encourage you to go to a BF support group of there's one in your area. It's nice to talk to other moms & the weighed feedings are interesting. (Although what they eat at one weighed feeding is just a snapshot, their intake can vary from feeding to feeding.)

[kitty]

Sept 30, 2014 15:23:41 GMT -5 rbp said:

Sept 30, 2014 15:19:25 GMT -5 teeah22 said:

4oz for every two hours sounds like a lot. I'm wondering if he maybe wants more than 2oz at a time and that's why they're running through bottles so quickly. Like if he had 3oz in a bottle maybe he'd be satisfied for longer and they'd be less likely to try and feed him again so quickly. Personally I would try 3oz bottles and send one more than you think he'll eat. See if they'll save the bottle for you if he doesn't finish it so you can see what's left (I personally reuse BM for the next feeding anyway). Also see if they have a freezer where you can keep some frozen milk.

I also had no idea how much milk to send, our first day was last Monday. I sent five 4oz bottles, he ate 4 bottles but only finished one. We've settled on four 3.5oz bottles, sometimes he only takes three but I send four regardless. I also have 12oz of frozen there if they need it.

This is a great idea, thanks. I'll send five 3oz bottles for eight hours on Thursday.

I forgot to answer PP's question: the teacher said he didn't seem satisfied by the 2 oz immediately after eating it.

This is right about what I sent in at first.  I would bring 5 3oz bottles for about 9 hours.  In the beginning, he would only eat 4 of them (12oz) total so I would reuse #5 as the next day's #1 and after a while just sent in the 4 3oz bottles and kept a couple bags of frozen milk at daycare as backup.  I figured if he was really starving they could thaw it and give it to him but because it was less convenient than just grabbing a bottle from the fridge, they would be much less likely to just feed it to soothe him.

Around 5 months, he started seeming as though he wasn't satisfied with the 3oz so we went up to 4 4oz bottles for 9 hours which we are still at today at 9mo.  Honestly, if I lived closer to daycare and could BF him as soon as I walked though the door we could probably be fine with 3 4oz bottles.  I have them give him the fourth bottle around 5/5:30 so he is happy on our 25 min car ride home and so I don't have to nurse him immediately when also dealing with a fussy nap-refusing 3 year old.

At 6 months, I also starting sending in an additional 2oz so they can make oatmeal with it for his morning snack.  So I am up to 18oz total every day.  I used to be able to pump that reliably in 3 sessions but lately I've had to add a 4th 9pm pump to keep up.