Breastfeeding mom going back to work?
Any other breast feeding moms that went back to work around this time? Around how many ounces was your baby drinking each feeding from the bottle? How much milk did you need to supply your child care provider with for an 8 to 9 hour work day?
Thanks!
Answer:
I went back to work when my baby was 14 weeks old. But I remember when she was 7 weeks old she was eating 4 to 5 ounces. It actually depends on your babies weight and appetite. When you pump, how many ounces do you get? Usually around the same amount you will pump, that is what your baby is eating. I pump at work and I get about 6 ounces, sometimes more. That's perfect because she eats 6 ounces. If your baby eats every 3 hours. Then send a bottle for every 3 hours. I also recommend taking a frozen bag of milk and leaving it at day care. It's one of those things... If one of your bottles spill while you're not there, or they throw one out on accident. They'll always have a back up. This happened to me and luckily I had an extra. It saved me a trip! Other then that you can send a snack bottle with an ouce of milk with that. My baby gets 3 6 ounces of milk bottles and 1 2 ounce snack bottle a day. Good luck to you!
Make sure your baby will take a bottle!
i didnt breastfeed my self because of health problems this is what i would suggest pump and feed the baby from a bottle before you go back to work so you can figure out how much your baby is drinking in a sitting and in a day and go from there i would take more than the baby will eat
Better to give too many bottle's than too little. I feed my child right before leaving and left 3 four ounce bottle's for a four-five hour period if my memory serves me right. I pumped at work to keep up the supply, and put the bottle's in a brown paper bag and slipped them in the work freezer until I went home. No one ever knew, or was bothered by it. Maybe your work can make a room available to you so you can pump in peace? Good Luck!
It depends on your child. Why not pump for a day or two and go to bottles and see how much he takes? You will want to do that anyway so you arent springing a bottle on him cold turkey when you go back to work.
As breastmilk is richer than formula milk, baby doesn't need as much as he would if you were using formula - my son drank around 4oz per feed at that age, it's a long day - so i would probably send around 4-5 bottles, and think about introducing formula so you can mix feed baby - just in case there is not enough. As long as you still feed baby when you can, it's still doing him/her some good and it makes life a hell of a lot easier. Keep up the good work - BREAST IS BEST!!
Gosh, it's so hard to recommend how much to send since all babies are different. If I remember right, when I first went back, I sent more than what I thought she could possibly need and pretty soon I was able to figure out exactly how much to take each day.
In the beginning, I also took a "spare" bag of milk to keep in the sitter's freezer in case she ran out on any given day.
Working while breastfeeding and pumping was the hardest thing I ever did - and also the most rewarding. So, bravo to you for having such dedication! Best of luck!
The answers post by the user, for information only, FeelBaby.com does not guarantee the right.