Leaving BF toddler for 3 days. How often should I express while away?

[chipmonkey]

That's it! Do I have to express every 4 hours? Ds3 is 13 months and still quite reliant on his breastfeeds.

not sure CM - but would guess 3 (4? if still having quite a lot of bm?) based on my ds - 14mths.
hope someone else has more idea!

i guess express roughly as often as you'd ordinarily feed, if practical,. Otehrwise, sure every 4 hrs fine

When I left the DTs for 3 days I expressed twice a day. But 3-4 sounds more reasonable. Depends on how quickly you fill.

problem is ds3 is a snacker so hard to gauge how much he actually feeds! I don't express for him in work every day, just one day when I work 12 hours and he mostly gets cows milk when I'm at work. But he does feed a lot at night still.

Hi chipmonkey.
From what I can gather, my ds2 seems similar to your ds3.....I think if I left him I would do first thing in morning, late morning, late afternoon then evening......

I would probably express once in the night....but after tonight, no more night feeds.......in theory anyway! Argh!

Where are you off to anyway?
What will ds3 do about night feeds?

I read somewhere that if you go over 6 hours without a feed, it can affect supply...

Hi popsy! Yes our ds's are of a similar age and disposition! My Mum is coming up to look after the ds's but I'm hoping he'll sleep through most of the night because its mainly dh and I tiptoe-ing into the room that wakes him up. And after that I can't be bothered to put him back.
We're going to Bratislava in Slovakia. Dh's choice!

oh wow - it will be fantasric!!!

I wish ds2's waking was for that reason!! :)
But tonight is the night!

I would do something like express 4 times every 24 hours if you can fit that in

I am a bit worried that he'll give my Mum a terrible time! But its dh's 40th and he's been so patient with the forced co-sleeping (ds hitting him on the head going da-da-da-da!) that I feel I should put him first for once!
4 times every 24 hours sounds manageable, TheBlonde!

Interesting thread. I am only leaving ds (16 months) for 2 days but I was assuming I would just express enough for comfort maybe morning and/or evening. He does only feed 2-3 times a day though some days he does do more very short feeds. We don't do night feeds any more.

I work 3 days a week and in the 10 hrs I don't see him on those days I have never expressed. I suppose I just assumed that after this long my milk supply is pretty robust and that 1-2 days of not feeding him should be OK though I appreciate I may need to express maybe once or twice a day more for my comfort than anything else.

Also even if my milk supply goes down a little bit, I am assuming ds will get it back up again when I get back. I have 4 days in a row with him when I return so that should be enough time to get the supply back before I have to leave him again for a work day.

chipmonkey, I would follow ds' pattern of feeding at least. My dd fed little and often - it could be because of her feeding style or the fact I naturally had small capacity for storing milk, so she needed to go on more often to be satisfied. But I had to express for 3 days when dd was having surgery and despite the fact I expressed every 2-3 hours during the day and twice at night, my milk supply deteriorated drastically. My dd was unsettled for 2 weeks at the breast after I put her back on exclusively, before I got my supply back.

I only got 1 oz or so at each expressing session. It is a fact that expressing is less efficient at drawing out the milk than a baby suckling. So to maintain supply, I would think you should express at least as often if not more often than your ds normally feeds. Or you could be happy to build up your supply again later. But bear in mind, it can be quite stressful if your ds is not satisfied during a feed.

Blueshoes, ds doesn't believe in patterns! How old was your dd when she had surgery?

chipmonkey, lol. Of, I use the word pattern loosely, even in my dd's case. I think she was feeding 17 times day and night (I recorded it!) at 4 months, when she had her surgery. Now, I am assuming your ds is NOT like that and follows a more manageable number of feeds.

I didn't think I could express 17 times so I guess what I went on was what was the shortest time it took my breasts to fill again (2-3 hours)and then pump. Mind you, I never really got more than 1 oz even using the hospital's industrial pumps and so saw no point expressing more frequently than that.