Hellobee Boards

I've always sent 4 oz portions for my LO and even now at 6 months, that's what she typically eats. Instead of increasing all of the feedings, perhaps you could send some 1-2 ounce portions for just in case? Also, if you know that you'll be there at 5, you could request they don't feed her after 4 and you nurse with her there/in the car before going home. This may work most of the time, but other times she really will need a few ounces to tide her over until you get there.

Have you tried lactation cookies to boost supply? The brewer's yeast and flax seed meal help.

Breastfed babies do not eat the same way as formula fed babies. If they don't have experience with breastfed babies they may be trying to get you to do the formula feeding way. I believe (I am going off memory) that babies need between 1 1/2 and 2 oz per hour you are away. That is a MAX of 14 oz for your day way (plus a few possibly).

I agree I think they are over feeding your baby. There are many threads on this already. You should ask them to try other techniques before feeding. How often was your baby nursing it should not be anymore frequent than that. Also I made them not feed my baby within an hour of me picking him up. So I knew he was hungry for me.

Kelly's mom says they take in approximately 25 oz in a day for the breastfed baby. They want you to provide 22 of those 25 oz. does not seem right to me.

@brownie: I agree, my research says that an exclusively breastfed infant should be having between 24 and 30 ounces total per day and if Mum is nursing four times a day averaging 2-3 ounces per session then baby should only require 12-16 ounces max at daycare.

Conversely, the general consensus is to allow 1-1.5 ounces per hour of daycare so based on this calculation, for eight hours you'd be looking at 8-12 ounces which indicates what you're sending is adequate for your LO.

Not sure if you've seen these before, but here's a couple of Kellymom links that might be of help to you!

http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/bottle_feeding.pdf

http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/#solids

My daycare asked me for more milk/bigger bottles in the beginning too. I declined, for the reasons the others mentioned. He was/is the only breast milk only baby and they were comparing him to the formula babies. They are overfeeding him and what you're sending is enough.

It was awkward to tell them no, but I had asked this question of our pediatrician (regarding amount of milk) before he started and she gave me the same information given here so I used that when I told them. They can't *make* you send more milk.

This is such a common problem! If you search for it, I'm sure you'll find a dozen threads just like this. I had the same problems with my daycare too. It seems most providers just don't have as much experience with breastfed babies and expect them to consume like the ff babies... and that's just not the way it works.

Plan for 1-1.5oz for every hour at daycare, give your providers a copy of the bottle feeding tips for breast-fed babies from kellymom, and ask them to try to soothe her in other ways before assuming she's hungry. If she's not napping well (my baby totally didn't sleep well at daycare) she may be fussy because she's overtired, not because she's hungry. Crying does not automatically equal hungry... you would think daycare providers would know this, but it really seems like they don't. Good Luck! Stick to your guns Momma!

@Kemma: that's the right numbers!

DS has been taking 5 oz 5-6x a day since 3 months. I think they are feeding her too frequently. At that age, DS was feeding every 3 hours. Sometimes 3.5 hours.

I send 4 4oz bottles to day care. About half of the time, she only drinks 3 of the four bottles. My day care asked me to send more on multiple occasions, but I asked them to feed her more frequently if she seemed hungry. I think they were reading her sleep cues as hunger cues. She didn't really sleep well at day care, so she was fussy. When she started sleeping better, she started not finishing all four of her bottles. I felt vindicated.

I even tried a day where I sent what they had asked for, and she didn't drink it all.

@Corduroy: Good luck. I would explain that there are more then enough ounces total, but you are willing to discuss more frequent feedings or less feedings with larger amounts.