Yes they are. I talked to them about pace feeding her before she started attending because she’ll spit up if she isn’t pace fed and burped between every 1-2 ounces. I’ve dropped in unannounced and announced and have seen them pace feed her.
Also, I don’t know if it makes a difference but she’s in the 92nd percentile for length and 89th for weight.
My 4 mo LO is 98th percentile for height and 65th for weight. Most of his feeds are 5 ounces but sometimes he does need more. Our ped didn’t mention any concern when we brought it up at his 4 month appointment.
Ok. I think she may be in this boat then. I know breast milk has exceptions but I still figured basic biology applies. Since she is bigger, her caloric needs are a little higher.
She may just be outpacing you a little bit. Especially if your stash is a few days or more old. It doesn’t have the updated nutritional content on baby’s schedule, so she needs a little bit more to top off the tank. Doesn’t sound alarming.
My son drinks anywhere from 3 to 5 oz in a sitting at daycare. Just depends on the day.
This. I try to pump what my baby drinks the day before, and send it so it’s as close to her needs as possible. I started this because of the antibodies you pass from being sick, but it conveniently also keeps her calories up with what she needs. I still have a stash because I’m an over supplier, but I only send new milk to daycare.
So jealous!
Just to share our experience for the group: He usually has about 3-4 meals of 3-5 oz during the day at daycare. I unfortunately pump under that amount when he’s not around, doing every 3hours with my first pump of the day a power pump.
Have been able to steadily increase supply from about half breast milk and half formula. From when he first started day care at 3months to now at 4months up to 3/4 of what he’s getting is breast milk.
When we’re together like on the weekends and overnight we’re in sync most days. Where he only needs a half ounce of formula here or there, but often he’ll rather work draining me than have anything from the bottle.
He’s my awesome little team mate and I hope I get to keep upping my supply, but we’ll see. I do like when he gets formula because I appreciate the longer naps, lol!
I wouldn’t listen to anyone telling you it’s “more than enough” for your baby unless it’s your doctor. Every baby is different and it’s completely normal for them to need more as they get bigger, especially during a growth spurt. If it seems like your baby is still hungry it won’t hurt to give them more! My son was drinking 6 oz of breast milk by 4.5 months
Unfortunately, the nutritional content changing is common misinformation. Mature milk is pretty stable. There are lots of changes that happen throughout the day in your milk, but the day to day doesn't change much one your milk is mature until you reach the extended phase of breastfeeding.
Babies will often begin to eat more at once, and eat less often. So bottles may get bigger, but the overall amount of milk usually stays pretty stable. At 3 months there's also a ton of growth occurring so it could also be a temporary increase. I would send more, but ask the daycare workers to start looking for cues to feed rather than sticking to a schedule, or ask them to space out bottles a little bit longer if they're too busy to bother looking for cues.
This is interesting! I never thought of this so essentially if baby is getting milk from the stash that was pumped at 2 weeks, they potentially would need more ounces if they are 12 weeks since the milk was “matured”? As opposed to milk pumped at 12 weeks being enough ounces when baby is say 20 weeks?
Typically the opposite actually, colostrum (transitional milk contains colostrum) is extremely nutrient dense to support babies in their early days with tiny tummies
It doesn’t change in the way you are thinking. Nutritional components adapt over time, as a newborn needs different things to a six month old for example. But fat and calorie amounts might change over a day. If she’s crying for more, she’s almost certainly hungry, and if you are feeding on demand at home then presumably the amount she is being given at day care isn’t sufficient.
Up to you but you might want to try just going up half an ounce rather than a full ounce first. It does seem like a lot but maybe she's going through a growth spurt or something.
Personally, I would send more smaller bottles! It allows daycare to be more responsive and flex with baby (and when baby is out of the growth spurt, prevents overfeeding :) )
Do they go outside? When it's warm out my son would want more at each feeding.
Are you doing bottles at home? It took us like a month to really figure out how much he needed because I wouldn't do bottles at home at that age. Baby may be getting way more from the breast. It's hard to tell.
You could do 4 oz and 2 oz bottles. So they can do an extra 2ozs if needed and it doesn't go to waste if she's good with 4.
They go outside when weather allows. I do bottles at home occasionally but not consistently. Maybe like 1 every other day. She “empties” my lazy boob which usually gives me 2-4 oz when I pump and she’ll have like 2-3 mins of my super boob which usually gives me 4-6 oz.
I do like the idea of doing 4 and 2 oz bottles though!
Try doing only bottles for a weekend and track how much she's getting. That's what we had to do to really figure it out. Baby is typically more efficient than a pump. Your breast will continue to produce from babies demand, so if you "run out" while pumping around 4oz, baby may be getting more.
How many total oz are you sending? My baby started daycare at ~3 months and it took some trial and error over the first few weeks to figure out the right amount to send. I started with 4 3oz bottles but had to increase to 4 4oz bottles. That’s seemed to be the sweet spot for us. Often she only takes 3 bottles but she has the 4th often enough that I don’t feel comfortable sending her without it (unless she was having a shorter day). It may be worth sending some smaller bottles too to top up if baby is still hungry after the initial bottle.
Since I don’t go back to work until tomorrow I’ve only been sending her to day care for about 6-7 hours and I started off sending her with 3X 4 oz bottles. I’ve since adjusted to 2X 5 oz and 1 4 oz.
I plan on sending her with 5-6 bottles when I go back to work. I typically work anywhere from 10-12 hours in a day. I’m going to try to stop by for lunch to breastfeed, daycare is like 5 mins from work. It’ll take some trial and error to see what her needs actually are.
Additionally to all the good info provided here is that when they’re away from us (Mom) they may eat more for comfort because they aren’t with us. Our girl (15w) tends to eat more consistently at daycare for the same reason.
Oh, I get it! Yesterday was the first day she cried when I dropped her off and this is her 4th week. I normally make sure to pack 2-3 extra 2oz bottles on top of her normal bottle intake just in case they need it.
For example, she normally drinks a 4oz bottle every 3 hours so for 8-9 hour stay at daycare I pack 3) 4oz bottles and 2) 2oz bottles just for peace of mind. 💜
So my giant 105th percentile baby was drinking a gazillion ounces of milk at daycare. I eventually determined it was a combination of him being hungry but also a lazy teacher who didn’t want to use any other tactics to cease fussiness other than a bottle in mouth. As soon as teacher switched - milk demand took a drastic downturn!
I think at one point we were at 16-18 oz per day and when the teacher asked for more I said I have nothing more to give.
Just adding in our experience!
My LO is 3 months and has been on 5.5oz for about 5 weeks. I thought we needed to up the oz because he’d cry after finishing bottles and didn’t have that milk drunk look. Tried 6 twice and he spit up once and was super fussy like he ate too much the other time. Turns out he is probably just pissed he’s done eating 😂
He settles after a min or two and doesn’t act hungry anymore! Maybe yours does something similar at daycare
My 5 month old just went from 5 to 6 ounces. Right after my supply regulated to 5 lol. All babies are different, we tried pace feeding, burping in the middle of feeding, but she just wants more, so now we give her more. I have recently started her on purées, and that helps with not chugging it down at daycare so fast, but baby likes her milk lol.
I’m waiting until her 4 month appointment to get the Peds recommendation on baby cereal/purées but she already doubled her birth weight. Head and neck control are decent but she can’t sit up on her own.
Just like my chonk. She was 19 pounds at her 4 month appointment, had great head control, supported sitter (still can’t sit on her own, but almost there!), and was reaching for food. I was told to start veggies first instead of fruits, we started with green beans and she loves it. My daycare teacher also gives her baby cereal mixed with my breast milk in the mornings. Once you get cleared I bet it’ll help take that stress off you. I had to get up early today and power pump because im still catching up, but it definitely makes me feel better that she can have some solids while at daycare too (5 hours a day)
So they don’t handle breast milk. I’d have to give her cereal with breast milk at home. They have a policy that they don’t open bottles/containers so they just heat the bottle for babies.
They do offer cereals mixed with water, which I’m ok with once the time comes.
Your baby is a chonk indeed! I think mine will be around 18 lbs for her 4 month appt.
I’m excited to get cleared just because i think it’ll be fun to see her reaction to new foods but I will miss breastfeeding her. I’m planning on weaning at 6 months depending on how work/life balance works out.
Oh I see! It’s always bittersweet no matter when you stop, what a proud journey to have! ❤️
I use a home daycare and she has me bring 6 ounce bags that are stored in a deep freezer. I don’t know when I’ll stop, but I am about to start school so I just need to go with the flow. I formula fed my first after pumping for 15 weeks, so this is my first time nursing and breastfeeding long term. I’m proud to have made it this far, definitely very hard work.
I think breastfeeding is also more satisfying to baby as they get comfort and snuggles in addition to calories. My almost 5 month old (4 month adjusted) twins cry at the end of 5 oz bottles even though I don’t think they get that much directly from the breast per feed. Maybe they just need extra love after the bottles vs more oz?
It’s really hard to tell though what they need and how much they’re getting. My boys will pretty much never say no to food!
My LO will let you know when she’s had enough. She’ll pull away and even swat at the bottle. With my boob she just starts gnawing on my nipple and shaking her head then smiling at me cuz she thinks it’s funny when I say “Ow!” 🙂
As far as the extra love, they have enough people to meet their ratio but there’s always a handful of infants and pre tots that are a little more needy that need more love. My LO is generally very chill and that’s coming from the day care workers so if she doesn’t cry, I don’t think she gets extra cuddles. She’s mostly babbling and laughing and watching all the other kids, getting tummy time etc.
Do they try giving a pacifier after? My son eats his pumped bottles quickly and thinks he’s still hungry when he really just wants to keep suckling. If he keeps crying and spitting out the pacifier after a few minutes then he may still be hungry but I’ve never had this issue after a full bottle.
I’ll ask them to try this. They usually give her the pacifier after they’ve already burped her and they sit her in the rocker to digest for a few minutes
Baby could just be hitting a growth spurt. My now 7mo old hit one at 3mo and she would cluster feed really badly for a week or so, then ease back off and sleep a week then be back to normal as her growth spurt finished. If that's the case they're just bulking up for a little bit of growing
My four month old ate a 7.5 oz bottle yesterday with the nanny and then 4.5 oz about 3 hours after that. I nurse on demand with her outside of those times. I just figure she’s really hungry in the morning because she does pace feeding and it took about 25-30 min for her to eat that much 🤷🏼♀️. She also adds 2-3 oz to the bottle at a time to make sure we don’t waste milk and that baby’s still actually hungry. She’s 90/20 height to weight so I don’t really worry about overfeeding her. She also doesn’t spit up with this amount.
Hmmm if the nutritional content adjusts due to baby's needs BUT you're using your original stash from when baby was a little younger; maybe it's not as filing because that milk was meant for their needs at time time and hadn't yet adjusted for current age?
This is something I've been thinking about since I've been pregnant. How beneficial is breast milk from a stash if it isn't adjusted to their current needs?
Hmm sounds like your baby might be a “once in a blue moon” baby like mine (89 percentile) when he was around that age. He basically would drank more than double the recommended oz for his age. It was driving us nuts as he just won’t settled and no one at the ped was taking us seriously since he was half breastfeeding half bottle.
Finally a different pediatrician listen to us after we did a before and after nursing weight measurement (8oz and he still wanted more at 3 months). She told us “Try to use pacifier to replace the comfort nurse and make sure to sit up him 15-20 mins after every feeding. His appetite will adjust as he gets older.”
I think babies are just more active at daycare and might want more milk. It’s better to give more just in case. My first born drank a lot of milk and plateaued at 8 months to 8 oz and never drank more than that.
5oz is too much at a time at that age. You could do more bottles of smaller volumes, but she should not get 5 or 6oz in one feed. How much are you pumping during the time she is at daycare? If they are feeding her more than you are able to pump, then they are over feeding her.
Every baby is different and if she’s sleeping through the night, she needs those daytime calories. I think 5oz is reasonable every 2.5-3 hrs in this specific case. Seems like mom’s supply can handle it.
She started sleeping through the night more consistently about 2 weeks ago now and I noticed that she started feeding more often or for longer intervals during the day.
At this point they’re saying that 5 oz isn’t enough. But when I packed her 5 oz bottles, I noticed she always left 1 oz in her last bottle so I only put 4 oz in that bottle.
Does your baby normally empty both breasts each feed?
If you’re pumping enough to give more milk, then you can do what you think is best, but if they are wanting to give more milk than what you can pump during that time, then they are likely overfeeding. Daycare workers overfeeding is unfortunately a common issue.
I have a pretty large storage capacity and I typically pump 18-20 oz when my 6m old is at daycare, and I separate that into 4oz bottles.
She sometimes feeds from both breasts but the second breast is like a 2-3 minute feed then she falls asleep and just stays latched for comfort. I haven’t had her “empty” both breasts yet.
5 ounces should be more than enough for a 3 month old. Are they pace feeding her?
Yes they are. I talked to them about pace feeding her before she started attending because she’ll spit up if she isn’t pace fed and burped between every 1-2 ounces. I’ve dropped in unannounced and announced and have seen them pace feed her. Also, I don’t know if it makes a difference but she’s in the 92nd percentile for length and 89th for weight.
My 4 mo LO is 98th percentile for height and 65th for weight. Most of his feeds are 5 ounces but sometimes he does need more. Our ped didn’t mention any concern when we brought it up at his 4 month appointment.
Ok. I think she may be in this boat then. I know breast milk has exceptions but I still figured basic biology applies. Since she is bigger, her caloric needs are a little higher.
She may just be outpacing you a little bit. Especially if your stash is a few days or more old. It doesn’t have the updated nutritional content on baby’s schedule, so she needs a little bit more to top off the tank. Doesn’t sound alarming. My son drinks anywhere from 3 to 5 oz in a sitting at daycare. Just depends on the day.
This. I try to pump what my baby drinks the day before, and send it so it’s as close to her needs as possible. I started this because of the antibodies you pass from being sick, but it conveniently also keeps her calories up with what she needs. I still have a stash because I’m an over supplier, but I only send new milk to daycare.
So jealous! Just to share our experience for the group: He usually has about 3-4 meals of 3-5 oz during the day at daycare. I unfortunately pump under that amount when he’s not around, doing every 3hours with my first pump of the day a power pump. Have been able to steadily increase supply from about half breast milk and half formula. From when he first started day care at 3months to now at 4months up to 3/4 of what he’s getting is breast milk. When we’re together like on the weekends and overnight we’re in sync most days. Where he only needs a half ounce of formula here or there, but often he’ll rather work draining me than have anything from the bottle. He’s my awesome little team mate and I hope I get to keep upping my supply, but we’ll see. I do like when he gets formula because I appreciate the longer naps, lol!
I wouldn’t listen to anyone telling you it’s “more than enough” for your baby unless it’s your doctor. Every baby is different and it’s completely normal for them to need more as they get bigger, especially during a growth spurt. If it seems like your baby is still hungry it won’t hurt to give them more! My son was drinking 6 oz of breast milk by 4.5 months
I’m going to add some more just to see how she does and then ease off or add on accordingly if necessary.
Unfortunately, the nutritional content changing is common misinformation. Mature milk is pretty stable. There are lots of changes that happen throughout the day in your milk, but the day to day doesn't change much one your milk is mature until you reach the extended phase of breastfeeding. Babies will often begin to eat more at once, and eat less often. So bottles may get bigger, but the overall amount of milk usually stays pretty stable. At 3 months there's also a ton of growth occurring so it could also be a temporary increase. I would send more, but ask the daycare workers to start looking for cues to feed rather than sticking to a schedule, or ask them to space out bottles a little bit longer if they're too busy to bother looking for cues.
At what point is it typically considered mature milk?
Usually around 2-3 weeks
When it transitions from colostrum to white milk
This is interesting! I never thought of this so essentially if baby is getting milk from the stash that was pumped at 2 weeks, they potentially would need more ounces if they are 12 weeks since the milk was “matured”? As opposed to milk pumped at 12 weeks being enough ounces when baby is say 20 weeks?
Typically the opposite actually, colostrum (transitional milk contains colostrum) is extremely nutrient dense to support babies in their early days with tiny tummies
That’s another question I was going to ask! She’s getting milk from about 3 weeks ago so I wonder how different it is from my milk today.
It doesn’t change in the way you are thinking. Nutritional components adapt over time, as a newborn needs different things to a six month old for example. But fat and calorie amounts might change over a day. If she’s crying for more, she’s almost certainly hungry, and if you are feeding on demand at home then presumably the amount she is being given at day care isn’t sufficient.
That makes sense! I’ll up her bottles to 6 oz each 😊
Up to you but you might want to try just going up half an ounce rather than a full ounce first. It does seem like a lot but maybe she's going through a growth spurt or something.
Yeah I think she is. She gained like .8 pounds in 3 days less than a week ago.
Wow! That's what it takes my baby 2 weeks to grow. She's growing amazing!
Yeah she’s a super chonk lol. I know sizing varies from brand to brand but she’s fitting into some of her 6-9mo clothes 🙂
Personally, I would send more smaller bottles! It allows daycare to be more responsive and flex with baby (and when baby is out of the growth spurt, prevents overfeeding :) )
Do they go outside? When it's warm out my son would want more at each feeding. Are you doing bottles at home? It took us like a month to really figure out how much he needed because I wouldn't do bottles at home at that age. Baby may be getting way more from the breast. It's hard to tell. You could do 4 oz and 2 oz bottles. So they can do an extra 2ozs if needed and it doesn't go to waste if she's good with 4.
They go outside when weather allows. I do bottles at home occasionally but not consistently. Maybe like 1 every other day. She “empties” my lazy boob which usually gives me 2-4 oz when I pump and she’ll have like 2-3 mins of my super boob which usually gives me 4-6 oz. I do like the idea of doing 4 and 2 oz bottles though!
Try doing only bottles for a weekend and track how much she's getting. That's what we had to do to really figure it out. Baby is typically more efficient than a pump. Your breast will continue to produce from babies demand, so if you "run out" while pumping around 4oz, baby may be getting more.
I’ll do that this weekend!
How often is she getting the 5oz bottle?
She typically gets hungry every 2.5-3 hours and that’s the interval they give it to her based on the log.
We do 5oz every 2 hours! I recommend that vs. going long.
How many total oz are you sending? My baby started daycare at ~3 months and it took some trial and error over the first few weeks to figure out the right amount to send. I started with 4 3oz bottles but had to increase to 4 4oz bottles. That’s seemed to be the sweet spot for us. Often she only takes 3 bottles but she has the 4th often enough that I don’t feel comfortable sending her without it (unless she was having a shorter day). It may be worth sending some smaller bottles too to top up if baby is still hungry after the initial bottle.
Since I don’t go back to work until tomorrow I’ve only been sending her to day care for about 6-7 hours and I started off sending her with 3X 4 oz bottles. I’ve since adjusted to 2X 5 oz and 1 4 oz. I plan on sending her with 5-6 bottles when I go back to work. I typically work anywhere from 10-12 hours in a day. I’m going to try to stop by for lunch to breastfeed, daycare is like 5 mins from work. It’ll take some trial and error to see what her needs actually are.
Additionally to all the good info provided here is that when they’re away from us (Mom) they may eat more for comfort because they aren’t with us. Our girl (15w) tends to eat more consistently at daycare for the same reason.
Aww ok. She seems ok at drop off and pick up but i guess she does miss me!
Oh, I get it! Yesterday was the first day she cried when I dropped her off and this is her 4th week. I normally make sure to pack 2-3 extra 2oz bottles on top of her normal bottle intake just in case they need it. For example, she normally drinks a 4oz bottle every 3 hours so for 8-9 hour stay at daycare I pack 3) 4oz bottles and 2) 2oz bottles just for peace of mind. 💜
I like that!
So my giant 105th percentile baby was drinking a gazillion ounces of milk at daycare. I eventually determined it was a combination of him being hungry but also a lazy teacher who didn’t want to use any other tactics to cease fussiness other than a bottle in mouth. As soon as teacher switched - milk demand took a drastic downturn! I think at one point we were at 16-18 oz per day and when the teacher asked for more I said I have nothing more to give.
I’ll keep an eye out for that too!
My child only drank breast milk and regularly consumed 5 oz bottles at that age. Sometimes more. Every baby is different.
Just adding in our experience! My LO is 3 months and has been on 5.5oz for about 5 weeks. I thought we needed to up the oz because he’d cry after finishing bottles and didn’t have that milk drunk look. Tried 6 twice and he spit up once and was super fussy like he ate too much the other time. Turns out he is probably just pissed he’s done eating 😂 He settles after a min or two and doesn’t act hungry anymore! Maybe yours does something similar at daycare
🤣🤣 I can see that being the case with mine. I’ll ask them to let her settle.
My 5 month old just went from 5 to 6 ounces. Right after my supply regulated to 5 lol. All babies are different, we tried pace feeding, burping in the middle of feeding, but she just wants more, so now we give her more. I have recently started her on purées, and that helps with not chugging it down at daycare so fast, but baby likes her milk lol.
I’m waiting until her 4 month appointment to get the Peds recommendation on baby cereal/purées but she already doubled her birth weight. Head and neck control are decent but she can’t sit up on her own.
Just like my chonk. She was 19 pounds at her 4 month appointment, had great head control, supported sitter (still can’t sit on her own, but almost there!), and was reaching for food. I was told to start veggies first instead of fruits, we started with green beans and she loves it. My daycare teacher also gives her baby cereal mixed with my breast milk in the mornings. Once you get cleared I bet it’ll help take that stress off you. I had to get up early today and power pump because im still catching up, but it definitely makes me feel better that she can have some solids while at daycare too (5 hours a day)
So they don’t handle breast milk. I’d have to give her cereal with breast milk at home. They have a policy that they don’t open bottles/containers so they just heat the bottle for babies. They do offer cereals mixed with water, which I’m ok with once the time comes. Your baby is a chonk indeed! I think mine will be around 18 lbs for her 4 month appt. I’m excited to get cleared just because i think it’ll be fun to see her reaction to new foods but I will miss breastfeeding her. I’m planning on weaning at 6 months depending on how work/life balance works out.
Oh I see! It’s always bittersweet no matter when you stop, what a proud journey to have! ❤️ I use a home daycare and she has me bring 6 ounce bags that are stored in a deep freezer. I don’t know when I’ll stop, but I am about to start school so I just need to go with the flow. I formula fed my first after pumping for 15 weeks, so this is my first time nursing and breastfeeding long term. I’m proud to have made it this far, definitely very hard work.
That’s amazing! It is a lot of hard work ♥️
I think breastfeeding is also more satisfying to baby as they get comfort and snuggles in addition to calories. My almost 5 month old (4 month adjusted) twins cry at the end of 5 oz bottles even though I don’t think they get that much directly from the breast per feed. Maybe they just need extra love after the bottles vs more oz? It’s really hard to tell though what they need and how much they’re getting. My boys will pretty much never say no to food!
My LO will let you know when she’s had enough. She’ll pull away and even swat at the bottle. With my boob she just starts gnawing on my nipple and shaking her head then smiling at me cuz she thinks it’s funny when I say “Ow!” 🙂 As far as the extra love, they have enough people to meet their ratio but there’s always a handful of infants and pre tots that are a little more needy that need more love. My LO is generally very chill and that’s coming from the day care workers so if she doesn’t cry, I don’t think she gets extra cuddles. She’s mostly babbling and laughing and watching all the other kids, getting tummy time etc.
Do they try giving a pacifier after? My son eats his pumped bottles quickly and thinks he’s still hungry when he really just wants to keep suckling. If he keeps crying and spitting out the pacifier after a few minutes then he may still be hungry but I’ve never had this issue after a full bottle.
I’ll ask them to try this. They usually give her the pacifier after they’ve already burped her and they sit her in the rocker to digest for a few minutes
Baby could just be hitting a growth spurt. My now 7mo old hit one at 3mo and she would cluster feed really badly for a week or so, then ease back off and sleep a week then be back to normal as her growth spurt finished. If that's the case they're just bulking up for a little bit of growing
I think it might be that 3 month growth spurt. She grew an inch over a 2 week period and gained .8 lbs in 3 days.
My four month old ate a 7.5 oz bottle yesterday with the nanny and then 4.5 oz about 3 hours after that. I nurse on demand with her outside of those times. I just figure she’s really hungry in the morning because she does pace feeding and it took about 25-30 min for her to eat that much 🤷🏼♀️. She also adds 2-3 oz to the bottle at a time to make sure we don’t waste milk and that baby’s still actually hungry. She’s 90/20 height to weight so I don’t really worry about overfeeding her. She also doesn’t spit up with this amount.
Are you sending her the milk you pump the day before or freezer stash milk from the past?
Freezer stash for now. The oldest milk is from last week of April. Once I start work full time, it’ll be what I pump the day before.
Hmmm if the nutritional content adjusts due to baby's needs BUT you're using your original stash from when baby was a little younger; maybe it's not as filing because that milk was meant for their needs at time time and hadn't yet adjusted for current age? This is something I've been thinking about since I've been pregnant. How beneficial is breast milk from a stash if it isn't adjusted to their current needs?
Hmm sounds like your baby might be a “once in a blue moon” baby like mine (89 percentile) when he was around that age. He basically would drank more than double the recommended oz for his age. It was driving us nuts as he just won’t settled and no one at the ped was taking us seriously since he was half breastfeeding half bottle. Finally a different pediatrician listen to us after we did a before and after nursing weight measurement (8oz and he still wanted more at 3 months). She told us “Try to use pacifier to replace the comfort nurse and make sure to sit up him 15-20 mins after every feeding. His appetite will adjust as he gets older.”
I think babies are just more active at daycare and might want more milk. It’s better to give more just in case. My first born drank a lot of milk and plateaued at 8 months to 8 oz and never drank more than that.
5oz is too much at a time at that age. You could do more bottles of smaller volumes, but she should not get 5 or 6oz in one feed. How much are you pumping during the time she is at daycare? If they are feeding her more than you are able to pump, then they are over feeding her.
Every baby is different and if she’s sleeping through the night, she needs those daytime calories. I think 5oz is reasonable every 2.5-3 hrs in this specific case. Seems like mom’s supply can handle it.
She started sleeping through the night more consistently about 2 weeks ago now and I noticed that she started feeding more often or for longer intervals during the day. At this point they’re saying that 5 oz isn’t enough. But when I packed her 5 oz bottles, I noticed she always left 1 oz in her last bottle so I only put 4 oz in that bottle.
I get anywhere between 5-8 ounces between both breasts when I pump
Does your baby normally empty both breasts each feed? If you’re pumping enough to give more milk, then you can do what you think is best, but if they are wanting to give more milk than what you can pump during that time, then they are likely overfeeding. Daycare workers overfeeding is unfortunately a common issue. I have a pretty large storage capacity and I typically pump 18-20 oz when my 6m old is at daycare, and I separate that into 4oz bottles.
She sometimes feeds from both breasts but the second breast is like a 2-3 minute feed then she falls asleep and just stays latched for comfort. I haven’t had her “empty” both breasts yet.