How old was your (breastfed) baby when you left them for the first time with someone else for a whole day?

[Mepmep]

Really interested to hear your experiences and thoughts on this.

I am still on Mat Leave and my ds will be 20 weeks when I have to leave him all day (with my mum) to go to a training thing. I know I'm really lucky because a lot of mums would have had to put their dcs into childcare by this point. However, I've not yet left ds with anyone for a whole day, so I'm wondering what to expect.

He is ebf, takes the bottle - but only sometimes - and still eats in a random fashion (gets distracted a lot, so doesn't always do a full feed). He's used to people, has lots of contact with both sets of grandparents.

I know he'll be just fine, but I'm still a bit apprehensive - I don't even know what I'm worried about, to be honest :)

Anyway, I would love to hear some stories about the day you left your dc alone with another caregiver for the first time.

What can I expect? What can I do to prepare? We still have a couple of weeks to go until the day.

2 weeks. I went back to work full time. I expressed milk before (and had some frozen stocks in the freezer). I expressed every few hours at home and brought that milk home. It works very well. I never bottle fed a baby but they took my milk in a bottle from their daily nanny.

I breastfed immediately before I left the house around the 7.45am feed and then when I got back at 6 (and what felt like most of the evening and night) and I breastfed exclusively at the weekends and holidays. I will not be a typical case as most fully breastfeeding mothers do not return to work full time at 2 weeks so you will probably get more relevant examples soon. Those first two children are now grown up and London lawyers and one plays a sport of England. I am sure the breastmilk helped them mentally and in terms of the best physical start too.

I think the harder part was the need to feed, the let down reflex and having to make the time to express whilst I wasn't there. No trauma for the baby. It was more my own need to feed it (or express). I took ice packs to work every day with an insulated freezer bag.

I left my breastfed twins with my mum at 8 weeks. Left expressed milk and bottles and was gone from about 10am until about 7pm. They didn't take much from the bottles during the day, and fed lots overnight to make up for it, but seemed to take enough to keep on top of their hunger (apparently, I wasn't there!).

I'm sure your DC will be fine, though I understand that the first time is hard :)

DS was 13 weeks when my sister got married. I was the matron of honour.

He was minded by DH's SIL for the day in my parents' house. I was SO apprehensive about leaving him. He was BFing almost every 1.5 hours and I would be gone from 1 - 8 (when he was brought to hotel!).

It was FINE in the end. SIL took him for a walk and he was asleep when we left for the church. I pumped just before I put on my dress (managed a miraculous 5oz in about 7 minutes!!!!) and I'd left almost 35 oz for him as well. He'd only taken a bottle one other time for DH.

Little blighter only drank 10oz while we were apart but made up for that the next night. SIL found him very easy to manage. It wasn't worth the days of agonising which I'd gone through before the wedding!!!

Your LO will surprise you and do great :) Best of luck, I know it's daunting the first time. And don't forget to bring a hand pump so you can relieve full boobs during the day!

Jane, wow, you went back to work after two weeks! That's truly a massive achievement: two weeks after my DS was born I still felt like I'd been hit by a truck! I couldn't make a cup of tea, never mind work.

Ah, thank you all for the support. You are right - DS will be fine! In fact, I have no idea why I'm worried. The longest I've been away from him
Is about 2 hours, so the thought of leaving him for a day is still a bit scary!

Sounds like all your babies did very well! I guess I am worried that DS will realise I'm not there the whole day and cry inconsolably, or he may not even care

Left my EBF baby overnight with DH at 19 weeks. She was a bit hit and miss with taking the bottle before I went but was absolutely fine in the end, and slept a hell of a lot better than she does when I'm there!

My DS1 was about 20 weeks when my DH took him out for a walk and stayed to watch a cricket match. Unplanned - he was going out for a couple of hours. My previously bf baby took the bottle of EBM quite happily, apparently. And when it had run out he fell asleep without crying.

I was completely thrown without my baby for six hours. My baby was completely fine about the whole experience ;).

DD was 8 months and I left her with DP and MIL for the day as a trial run a few weeks before I went back to work. I went out for the day on my own and had a lovely time. She was a bottle refuser but did drink some milk from a cup while I was out and obviously she had started solid food by then anyway but didn't really take to solids until she was about a year old. I think DS was about the same age.

21 months
To be fair I didn't really have any reason to before then. Did the odd 3-4 hour stint from about 4 months.

Your norks will be huge though!

Minecraft, yes that's exactly what I thought - he'll be fine but I will be a bit... Meh.

Guitargirl, great idea to do a trial run!

Belmo - I was thinking 20 weeks is old compared to what most of my friends have had to do. Most had to leave 12-16 week old babies to go back to work full time. I'm just soft, I guess

first one about 10months
this one it was last week at 7.5months. but I cheated and the nanny brought her into work to feed.

my tip is to take breast pads. leaky boobs are not corporate .