Expressing advice please

[LuckyMrsT]

My 6 week old is exclusively breastfed at the moment. I have to leave him for the day at the end of next week and have borrowed an electric pump to express his milk for the day. I know all babies are different but can anyone advise how much I'll need to express to get him through the day? He seems quite a hungry baby but obviously I have no idea how much he gets through a day. Also can anyone tell me how much I should express each day? I'm worried about leaving him short if I express too much. I've only started today and have 3oz in the freezer so far.

at 6 weeks my baby was drinking around 120mls/4oz, 6-8 times per day. I think this is nearer the top end of the scale but if he's very hungry maybe up it to 5oz. After feeding your baby i recommend emptying your breasts fully by pumping. Any thats extra, just freeze it in breastmilk bags and keep for a rainy day! :)

At 6 weeks, I'd expect the baby to take about 3 - 4oz every 3 hours or so.

I think the general guide is an oz per hour plus a bit in case he's extra hungry.

I'm guessing that you're unlikely to be leaving him for 24 hours, which will make a considerable reduction in the volume you'll have to express.

With regard to when/how much to express, I didn't have much joy once my babies had fed. I would try and pump a while after a feed to make it easier to get a reasonable volume - you won't leave him short for his next feed as you'll make more as he's feeding. He might have to work a bit harder for it, but that'll boost your supply and help you get more from the pumping session later Personally I pump first thing in the morning and last thing at night when I am building a stash as I get the most then due to a longish gap since the last feed.

Kellymom.com has lots of useful info if you have time to look.

There's a calculator on kellymom for working out how much they take each feed. Basically breastfed babies take 25oz on average (think the range was 20-30oz), so if 8 feeds that's 3 and bit oz per feed.

Work it out as 1oz/per hour plus an extra oz or 2.

If you pump too much, you'll end up really engorged - your supply just adjusts to whatever you are pumping plus what your baby is taking. And you really want to avoid oversupply as you're going to be apart from your baby -a pump isn't as efficient at getting the milk out so you have to be careful to avoid mastitis at that early stage. So pump the minimum you can do and don't carry on pumping when the supply slows right down.

Thanks everyone, that's helped a lot.