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18 oz does seem like alot for 8 hours. The most my DD drank at daycare was 15oz and she was there from 7-5. If he's eating enough when he's home with you than I would think 12-15oz is sufficient for his daycare bottles.

How old is he? I really doubt you need to send more milk than you currently are. Just tell the daycare teacher you're going to keep sending the same amount, and ask her to tell you if it really seems like he's obviously wanting more afterward.

@MrsSCB: Figuring all of this out takes some time. Look up "paced feeding" and reiterate that you'd like them to feed him that way - with lots of pauses for his belly to have a chance to feel full and also more similar to how he would nurse. 18 oz sounds like a lot. I would also ask them to hold off on giving more until maybe 20 min after a feeding and wait and see if he is truly still hungry. I also wouldn't give them more right away.

@MrsSCB: these posts always make me so frustrated! I think that daycare teachers are generally more accustomed to formula feeding and how much formula fed babies eat. My LO never did more than 12 oz a day being at daycare about the same amount of time. Everything I've read indicates that is the norm. Breastfed babies don't drink more ounces as they get bigger, the milk composition changes to satiate them.

I would go back to sending three four ounce bottles and then send an extra two ounce one just in case.

I think 12-16 oz is a normal range. But that seems like a ton.

Same as everyone else. DS never had more than 12 - 14 oz and he has been in the 95th percentile for height and weight all of his life. I sent 3, 4 oz bottles and 1, 2 oz "top off" bottle that was rarely used. I printed out some info on paced bottle feeding and gave that to them. It seems a lot of daycares use bottles as the first line of soothing so we have them all of our tips for calming DS down without a bottle. It took some time but it all worked out after a couple weeks. Good luck!

Nursed babies are used to sucking for a while. So sometimes when a bottle feeding doesn't take so long they still want to suck. This is different than being hungry. It can be hard in a daycare setting to do long paced feedings, but it will help. With our nanny I explained what it was like when we nursed and she tried to make a bottle take about the same amount of time, including switching sides. Good luck!!

Baby can be stress eating. I would probably send the same 3 four ounce bottles and maybe send like one or two stress sucking bottles with an ounce or two each with a premise nipple on it. Or tell them to offer a binkie.

At 3 months my boys were at 24-28oz in a 24 hour period and were eating about every 3-3.5 hours. So they had 4.5-5oz bottles. If you are nursing in the morning and once you get home that means he really only needs 15-ish ounces at most.

I was really stressed out about this, too, before returning to work a few weeks ago. My mom watches my baby two days a week, my husband watches her two days a week, and one day a week I work from home. Both my mom and husband have said, "she seems like she can eat more." Ugh. It pains me because we can only pump so much! I used to send 3.75 ounces for three bottles, which is what my lactation consultant told me she would need to eat, considering she eats 8 times a day. But then I started sending 4 ounce bottles recently since I found that I am able to pump that much. I told them that 4 ounce bottles is all she can have at this point. I also send a 4th "emergency" bottle but they have never used it. And like you, my baby never seems starved or distressed with I pick her up. And she's a total chunker of a girl. I hope you get it figured out with your day care. Its stressful and I don't think you need to jump into supplementing just yet. Soon enough your baby will be eating a little food, anyways.

@MrsSCB: does he take a pacifier? If so I would ask them to offer that after a feeding - maybe he just wants to suck and isn't necessarily still hungry?

We're struggling so hard with this same issue right now. My 14 week old ate 17 oz of breast milk at daycare yesterday (8-5:30) and I nurse her 4x at home. That's with three feedings of 5oz bottles at 9,12,3, and a snack bottle of 2oz at 5 to keep her happy until I get there.

ETA: she's in the 90th percentile for weight. She was 14.5 lbs at 3 months.

Sounds like a lot to me! I've always followed the 1-1.5 oz/hour rule. DD (9 months) is in daycare 10 hours/day and she eats 3 - 5oz bottles. She's also a large baby.

DD never drank more than 5 oz at a time... They may be feeding him too fast; or maybe he enjoys the comfort of drinking milk so he just acts like he wants more. I think you're sending enough! I never sent more either cause I never had a great supply.

Daycare always wanted more but when DD was on bottle I sent 4-3 oz bottles and eventually bumped it up to 4 oz/bottle. I remember reading somewhere that was enough. I nursed her at home in the morning and twice at night. I honestly can't remember the "recommended" or suggested # of oz's day maybe around 20-22 oz's? if you think he's getting enough then I wouldn't send more. I never did.

I only ever pumped about 12oz a day while at work and it quickly became apparent that it wasnt enough for my girl at her 4m appt (she had been at daycare 3 weeks) she fell off her curve and the ped was concerned. I started sending four 4oz bottles in to daycare (she was there 7:45-5pm but it was 45 min each way to home - so 11 hours) once i burned through my freezer stash we started supplementing one 4oz bottle of formula a day. By 6m she was back on track weight wise and we were adding in solids in the form of oat cereal and vegetation. We continued to supplement through the 12m i breastfed. At one point I may have upped it to three 5oz bottles somewhere between 6-9m.

@MrsSCB: I had another thought - what size nipple are you using? I had my guy on a preemie nipple until he was about 8 months when I finally moved up to a newborn nipple. It slowed him way down and he was able to tell he was full because it was much more like breastfeeding in both duration and effort required