How much to pump for 4mo EBF during the day at CM?

[Fenouille]

I'm looking for advice as to how to work out how much milk I need to pump for my currently 3mo DS when he starts with the CM next month. He's going to be with her for full days: 8.30am to 5.30pm.

Currently I EBF and he generally feeds for 30 minutes at 7am, 10am, 12pm, 3 pm, 6pm, cluster feed 8-10pm, and not every night at 4am-ish.

If he sticks to this rhythm I'll need to replace 3 meals. My midwife has recommended making some milk ice cubes for small snacks but I don't know how much I need to pump for the main meals.

How can I work this out? I already pump regularly to build up Some reserves and I expect to be able to pump mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Will that be enough? Help! :)

Depending on his size he could be drinking between 650ml to a litre in 24 hours. He's having 6-7 feeds a say- 130ml per feed x7 would be 910ml. You need to supply the 10am, 12pm, 3pm, and potentially 6pm feeds (best to be on the safe for the first few days and send too much), so I'd say send 120-130ml x 4 every day- about 500ml if you can manage it. Will you be pumping during the day at work?

This might help.

before 6 months I'd leave 9-12oz pumping twice daily. I assumed 1oz/hr. Remember it's you that can controls how much baby has. When returning to work, practicalities have to be met and you can't really express 20-25 oz a day just because the child minder convinces themselves that the baby is hungrier than they are. Especially when they're used to formula amounts.

I also went back at 4 months for the time of day you indicated. I used to feed DD about 6 and then just before I left. Express at 11 (got 5-7oz) and 3 (got 3-5oz). Feed as soon as I got in and then 2 hours later.

I used none of the my freezer supply as I wanted it to be sustainable effort. At 7 months we cut her down to 1 lunchtime bottle a day which was 3 oz by 8 months. At 10.5 months we cut out day milk altogether. We still have the freezer supply and use it when I'll be late home.

Remember with expressing, you don't need to sterilise each time you use within a day. Just chuck in the fridge in a ziploc bag.

Every so often I would have a booster weekend where I'd feed her loads and then express in between meals. Only before 6 months though.

We're doing BLW and didn't start proper until 6 months (let her much of some fruit before then)

They kellymom site is fantastic. In particular look up method for how to bottle feed the BF baby

Thanks duchesse for the calcs and climax for sharing your experience. If we can make it through the first three months before he starts really getting any solids in him then it sounds like it gets a lot easier.

My DS is on the lower end of the weight spectrum (around 15th percentile) and has been tracking that steadily since birth. Whenever we've given him bottles up to now (if I've gone out) we've struggled to get more than 100 ml into him, but that's only ever been for one feed maximum.

I reckon I should be able get at least 120 ml at each pumping session during the day (I can get 60 ml off each breast pretty rapidly if he sleeps through his 4 am feed) so I think I'm going to have to dig into my frozen reserves from the start unfortunately. My work is luckily pretty flexible so I'm thinking of getting DH to do the drop off if his morning feed shifts forward so that I can leave earlier so he'll definitely get the 6 o'clock feed from me. The idea with the milk ice cubes is that the CM could give him 20 ml or so between the last afternoon feed and pick up if he starts getting antsy.

Booster weekends sound like a fantastic idea climax. Did you find her more fussy when expressing between meals? I think I might start pumping regularly in between meals now in this last month I'm at home as I used to use the missed night feed as a way to stock up but he hasn't actually missed it now for a couple of weeks.

Just a last question for climax. What do you mean about the sterilising? That I don't need to sterilise the pump during the day if I put it in the fridge after pumping? That would be quite handy and eminently feasible as my company has just put a breastfeeding room in place for those of us needing to express during the day with our own dedicated fridge.

Thanks again both of you.

Remember that once your missing feeds instead of feeding as an addition you'll pump more

She was sometimes a bit fussy at the booster session weekend, but I had a lot of problems before hand with fussy eating. In comparison this was nothing and just required a little patience. I used to express an hour after feeding and hoped she went another hour again.

With the sterilising: BM has antibacterial properties. I used to wash the pump parts the night before and then leave in the fridge overnight and whilst at work. Saves a lot of time not cleaning and sterilising it in between feeds which is also pointless. Some people rinse it out first but looking at the evidence, I've concluded that if anything this is worse (as your washing away the good milk).

OK, got you on the non-sterilising. I haven't actually seen how much space there is in the fridge in the room at work but hopefully there'll be enough room to do that, it sounds like a real time saver.

Thanks again for sharing your experience. Although I'm really looking forward to going back to work the logistics are quite daunting.