https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 24 May 2026 09:42:12 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1910232 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 23:29:52 +0000 lady grey 1910232@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@derevival: Like @catomd00, my LO took three 4oz bottles. He started daycare at 4 months. They also have a freezer so I kept one or twos frozen bags of milk at daycare just in case he got really hungry! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1910016 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:17:57 +0000 ShootingStar 1910016@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>1. I was super concerned about this too, and really it's not a huge deal. I sent 3 4oz bottles and at the beginning I would send an extra and kept extra frozen at daycare just in case. </p> <p>2. I never really bothered with a cooler. Just pour into bottles and I always put the bottles in a gallon ziploc bag just in case they leak. Our commute to daycare is just about 10 minutes, and then when we get there the bottles go right in the fridge, so no need for the cooler. And generally I didn't thaw either, I just used milk from the day before. Only if I had extra would I freeze it. It's a huge hassle to freeze and thaw. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1910001 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:11:18 +0000 catomd00 1910001@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>1. My dd eats 3 4oz bottles at daycare (she's there for 10 hours so a little over an ounce an hour.) it was a little trial and error at first, but I pretty much just give her what I pump (some days I pump 14 oz other days 10 oz...she hasn't starved yet! ;) </p> <p>If you are able to leave a little extra on the freezer at daycare that's a plus. You could also just send a larger bottle with the whole day of milk and ask them to pour it into a smaller bottle as needed until you figure out how much LO takes. If you're pumping a decent amount after a few weeks, you will be confident that what you're pumping is what LO needs. (A dip in supply when you return to work is normal so don't worry too much! I pumped 4-6 times a day for a few weeks just to get what LO needed...now I only need to pump 3x at work and can get away with 2 if I have to.)</p> <p>As for two, I just send whatever I pump the day before. I just throw it in her backpack and put it in the fridge when I get there. I never found a freezer pack necessary, but I'm pretty loose when it comes to the breastmilk handling rules... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1909996 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:06:57 +0000 DillonLion 1909996@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>You send what you pumped the previousday, usually no thawing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1909993 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:04:53 +0000 nana87 1909993@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Lo just started daycare a couple weeks ago. I supplement anyway so for the first couple days I sent in formula since I dont care if that gets wasted as much as breastmilk. That gave me an idea of about how much she drinks, so I've been bringing in breastmilk more and more-- like today, I brought 2 3.5 oz bottles of breastmilk and 2 5oz formulas. She drank 3 of the 4 bottles. </p> <p>I use a cooler bag--http://www.skiphop.com/product/grabgodoublebottlebag.html. I walk lo to daycare and I like that it clips onto the stroller handle. It says it holds 2 bottles but if I don't put the freezer pack in (it's only out of the fridge for about 15mins) I can fit 4 medela bottles </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1909977 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 19:42:15 +0000 kentuckygirl 1909977@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I bought a cooler bag and can shaped blue freezer pack at Wal-Mart to transport. I also had DH feed him a few bottles in the week leading up to daycare. We found that he needed nearly 5 oz. per bottle. For about 2 weeks I sent an extra bottle until I was sure of his needs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1909717 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 16:33:06 +0000 derevival 1909717@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Oops duplicate </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1909711 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 16:31:09 +0000 derevival 1909711@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ctownmacaron: @Adira: @My Only Sunshine: @Pumuckl: Thanks so much for the great tips and advice!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1908564 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 07:44:52 +0000 Adira 1908564@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did a bottle bootcamp the weekend before we started daycare. Hubs would feed Xander bottles while I pumped. That was the only way we got an idea of how much to send. He ended up drinking anywhere from 3.5-4.5 oz, so I sent 5 oz bottles to be on the safe side, but I'm sure I could've gotten away with sending less in each bottle. I also sent an extra bottle every day in case he went through a growth spurt or something.</p> <p>As for transportation, we live less than 10 minutes from our daycare, so we just transported the bottles in a ziploc bag and put them in their fridge as soon as we got there. If I had further to go, I'd use a cooler.</p> <p>Good luck!! &lt;3 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1908556 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 07:36:19 +0000 My Only Sunshine 1908556@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>As far as how to send it, I would ask your daycare. Mine would take either thawed breastmilk already in bottles or frozen bags they would thaw there. It was much easier for me to send the frozen bags, and I wasn't as worried about using it before it "went bad" like I would have been if it was thawed.</p> <p>As far as how much to send, one piece of awesome advice I received was to send a few one ounce bottles or frozen bags in addition to the other bottles you send until you figure out how much your baby is taking at each feeding. Our daycare had a rule that once a baby started drinking from a bottle, they had to dump it after an hour. So I sent 3 ounce bags and a few 1 ounce bags. So if it turned out she was still hungry after 3 ounces, they could just thaw an extra ounce instead of having to thaw out a whole 3 ounces and dumping the unused amount. After a week or two of trial and error we figured out she drank 3.5 ounces at a feed, and then increased to 4 ounces when she was like 5 months old.</p> <p>Hope that helps! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1908497 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 04:04:10 +0000 Pumuckl 1908497@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I can only answer the first of your questions since I never had to transport my milk to daycare.</p> <p>I was also very unsure as to just how much my LO was eating during his BF session so I decided to do some weighted feeds in the two weeks leading up to my first day back at work. I learned that his feeds were all very differently sized and varied strongly throughout the day. Some feeds were closer to 6 oz whereas others were typically more in the 3-4oz range.</p> <p>Concerning part of your question 2:<br /> I would guess you could either thaw milk everyday or just use what you pumped on that day for the bottles on the next day. Mrs. Bee had a pretty cool system for BM storage/rotation that she described on the blog (<a href="http://www.hellobee.com/2012/03/08/my-pumping-strategy/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellobee.com/2012/03/08/my-pumping-strategy/</a>). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1908495 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 03:34:35 +0000 ctownmacaron 1908495@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Kellymom.com is an excellent evidence based resource. They recommend 1-1.25 ou. per hour of separation. I usually send three 3.5 ou. bottles for a nine hour day. This is on the high end but he was fussing a lot and I added a little extra, which has helped. I bought the medela cooler, which came with an ice pack. I pump at work and store the milk in the cooler. The next day, I bring the milk to daycare in the cooler. I pump at night once after baby goes to bed to supplement the extra ounce or so that I am unable to pump at work. You and baby will find your groove pretty quickly! Best wishes! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/pumping-and-bottles-questions#post-1908482 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 01:15:17 +0000 derevival 1908482@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hi, all! I have a couple of questions (probably d'oh/"stupid" ones) I would love getting your expertise on: </p> <p>1. How do you determine how many ounces of breast milk your LO drinks? (I'm still exclusively breastfeeding but have been storing 3 oz bags in freezer.)<br /> 2. How did/do you transport your supply for daycare? (I imagine that once I know the answer to #1, I will thaw only what LO needs the night before, pour it into X number of bottles, and bring it all in a cooler. Right?)</p> <p>I really need guidance on the logistics of how this all works for when I return to work. Thanks so much! </p>