Sending breast milk to day care.... Advice

[Anonymous]

We are moving our almost 6 MO to a centerr. He is currently EBF and gets between 3 and 4 bottles of 4 oz. each at his home day care. Unfortunately the home day care is super inconvenient to our commutes, and now that our older son will be in the preschool at this center, it will be much easier on everyone if they are at the same place.

The day care does not keep any bottles or breast milk overnight, and they will not put anything in the freezer to keep. Most of the time DH will be close by (it's at his office), but on the days that he travels, I will be pretty far away, with my commute potentially complicated by traffic or weather events. In the past at family day cares, I've always left a few packets of frozen milk in case of emergency, and I usually send 4 bottles with 1 usually coming back home uneaten. The day care says I just need to send extra milk in case something happens and no one can get there, but I don't think they realize the implications of doing that. I have a freezer stash, but it isn't huge. He has never taken formula before and was really picky about milk and bottles for a long time. I'd rather not introduce formula just to see. I can leave a few emergency-only RTF formula bottles, but being new there, I'm unsure of what they may interpret as an emergency. I don't want them giving him the bottles just because Dad was running 15 minutes late. Not to mention I have no idea if he would actually take it anyway. We haven't started solids yet and don't plan to have him eating solids at day care until it's established at home. DS1 literally never needed the emergency milk stash before, but it gave my peace of mind to know it was there.

How have other moms handled this situation? DH could probably put a few packets in his freezer in the common breakroom at his office (will people think that's weird? Probably!), but that doesn't help when he's traveling. It's a secured building. Maybe I'm just overthinking this (probably).

Any other advice for using breast milk and centers will be welcomed! It's the first time we've been in a center and the policy-driven aspect has me a bit unnerved after being in a super flexible, customized home setting. The center is subsidized A LOT by DH's employer and is generally well-regarded, so it's difficult to turn it down.

[Anonymous]

Send one extra bottle of 2-4 ounces if you aren't comfortable feeding/sure he'd take "emergency" formula. I know BM is liquid gold and you said you don't have a large stash, but you could always use that "extra" bottle right away at home, or as a supplement after you nurse the baby.

[Anonymous]

Any extra bottle you send, you should label as #1 and they should feed it 1st to the baby the next day. You'll need to bring it home with you and bring it back the next day. Bring an ice pack with you if you are concerned the drive is going to warm the milk up too much.

If it's a center, they've dealt with this before as many, many working moms pump and breastfeed. Ask them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any extra bottle you send, you should label as #1 and they should feed it 1st to the baby the next day. You'll need to bring it home with you and bring it back the next day. Bring an ice pack with you if you are concerned the drive is going to warm the milk up too much.

If it's a center, they've dealt with this before as many, many working moms pump and breastfeed. Ask them.

I've done this. Numbering the bottles is easy. Just have your husband bring a bag with ice packs to work to bring home what doesn't get used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any extra bottle you send, you should label as #1 and they should feed it 1st to the baby the next day. You'll need to bring it home with you and bring it back the next day. Bring an ice pack with you if you are concerned the drive is going to warm the milk up too much.

If it's a center, they've dealt with this before as many, many working moms pump and breastfeed. Ask them.

I've done this. Numbering the bottles is easy. Just have your husband bring a bag with ice packs to work to bring home what doesn't get used.

Have you run into issues with the day care feeding more than they'd normally eat? I'd rather he nurse more with me, even if it means waking at night. I'm not saying I want him fussing and hungry at day care either, of course!

[Anonymous]

I number bottles as well and just bring the extra home each night. BM can stay out of refrigeration for a good long while, so it will be fine.

You can also ask daycare not to feed your baby after a certain time to ensure he is hungry when you get to him.

Just talk to them - they have been through this a gazillion times and have tips for every situation you could come up with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any extra bottle you send, you should label as #1 and they should feed it 1st to the baby the next day. You'll need to bring it home with you and bring it back the next day. Bring an ice pack with you if you are concerned the drive is going to warm the milk up too much.

If it's a center, they've dealt with this before as many, many working moms pump and breastfeed. Ask them.

I've done this. Numbering the bottles is easy. Just have your husband bring a bag with ice packs to work to bring home what doesn't get used.

I've done this as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any extra bottle you send, you should label as #1 and they should feed it 1st to the baby the next day. You'll need to bring it home with you and bring it back the next day. Bring an ice pack with you if you are concerned the drive is going to warm the milk up too much.

If it's a center, they've dealt with this before as many, many working moms pump and breastfeed. Ask them.

I've done this. Numbering the bottles is easy. Just have your husband bring a bag with ice packs to work to bring home what doesn't get used.

Have you run into issues with the day care feeding more than they'd normally eat? I'd rather he nurse more with me, even if it means waking at night. I'm not saying I want him fussing and hungry at day care either, of course!

First of all, you want your baby to get on a proper day/night cycle. Reverse cycling is good for no one.

Also, in my experience, while day care providers will probably agree to stop feeding after a certain time, they are not going to be cool with letting your baby be hungry during the day.

I think you're overthinking this a little. I sent 4 x 4oz bottles to daycare every day. Generally, my baby drank all of them, but not always. Daycare workers at a good center are going to have tons of experience with this. Once you get into a routine, it's easy.

[Anonymous]

Numbering them is a good idea. Also, make that last bottle a "snack bottle". If your DS normally drinks a 4oz bottle, make that last one a 2oz bottle so that he's still hungry when he gets home but isn't crying inconsolably from hunger if your DH is late.

Then, mix it with a few more ounces of fresh milk to be bottle #1 the next morning.

[Anonymous]

Yes, number the bottles and rotate #4 to #1 the next day. If you send in frozen milk number it early in the sequence since it won't be good the next day (but fresh will hold). Something I wish I had asked my daycare to do was send back the remainders on unfinished bottles so I knew whether to adjust number and quantity accordingly (in retrospect I suspect they weren't reporting when he wasnt finishing bottles leading me to exhaust my stash earlier than I might have otherwise).

[Anonymous]

I honestly never want daycare to hold back milk...who cares if they are comfortable feeding...babies need comfort!! so I always send extra and have a case of ready to feed stored there as a back up. Even though he's never had formula if he's truly hunary I'm assuming he will eat it? I'd rather be extra safe then have a hungry baby. I also number the bottles and ask that they finished up bottle number 1 in the beginning of feeding number 2 if there was any left over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I honestly never want daycare to hold back milk...who cares if they are comfortable feeding...babies need comfort!! so I always send extra and have a case of ready to feed stored there as a back up. Even though he's never had formula if he's truly hunary I'm assuming he will eat it? I'd rather be extra safe then have a hungry baby. I also number the bottles and ask that they finished up bottle number 1 in the beginning of feeding number 2 if there was any left over.

that's suppose to say comfort feeding

[Anonymous]

My daycare in VA offered bottles every 3 hours. I think it was part of their licensing. If I was running late, he'd get a bottle. Sucked that I had to pump, but why should he have to be hungry just because I'm behind schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any extra bottle you send, you should label as #1 and they should feed it 1st to the baby the next day. You'll need to bring it home with you and bring it back the next day. Bring an ice pack with you if you are concerned the drive is going to warm the milk up too much.

If it's a center, they've dealt with this before as many, many working moms pump and breastfeed. Ask them.

This is what we did for my DS also. We sent extra every day; whatever was not finished become first fed the next day.

[Anonymous]

Yup - number the bottles and change #4 to #1 the following day.