BF when going to nursery

[latheritup]

Hello, my daughter is nearing 5 months and we have EBF since birth. I'll be sending her to nursery for 2 days a week when she reaches around 10 months of age. I'd like to think we will still be BF by then.

How does it work with milk and sending them to nursery? I assume I send her to nursery with some pumped milk. My questions are... how am I to know how much to send? When she is at nursery, I will have to pump during her normal feeding times right?

Sorry if this is a stupid post but this is my first child and we've not had a chance to go to any support groups.

Yes you will still need to pump during her normal feeding times, although they will reduce between 5 and 10 months anyway. Re knowing how much to send not a clue sorry but by that age she will have somewhat of a routine so you’ll know how often you feed. I would say 5 ounces at least per feed time.

I dont know if you need to send milk? I went back to work when dd was 11 months and did not pump at all. I just bf in the morning and as soon as we got back home around 6 pm. She was eating solids and had water (and maybe cows milk, I cant remember) during the day. I was a little uncomfortable with the full breasts but it was ok. I found pumping awful faff though so I was happy everything worked out fine without having to do it. I went on to bf until dd was over 3 yo.

I was exactly the same as Jenjenn with both of mine. They had breast milk in the morning and evening and had water/cow's milk in the day (they were never very bothered about cow's milk when they were babies though). This worked well for us but I remember worrying about it at the time!

Thank you all for your help. I have a small stash in the freezer, maybe 18 bags or so varying from 3oz to 5oz so will try add some more to that. Hopefully the feeds will die down a bit and I won't need to stress as much!

I wouldn't worry too much at 10 months. You can feed morning, after nursery and before bed at that age and she can have water and food at nursery. On the non-nursery days you can feed as much as you like.

Dispite breastfeeding feeding on demand about 10 times a day before my child went to childcare at 9 months we both adjusted really well to feeding morning, after work and bedtime. I gave childminder some frozen thawed milk with any fresh expressed milk which was usually less than 30ml. She mostly refused it and I think only took it once. She was drinking water and eating dairy products at that age. So I stopped expressing and when milk ran out childminder stopped offering any. Also, I only expressed for the first week back. Then kept my pump in my bag a bit longer in case I felt uncomfortable but my body adjusted.

And still breastfeeding at 2 years.

By 10 months many babies are just feeding morning and night.

Some are total boob monsters, but totally fine to have that morning and night feed if they are away from you.

They don't need milk during the day at that age, even if they would like to have it. There is no need to restrict her access at weekends either. By 10 months supply is massively robust and can handle that kind of discrepancy easily.

Thank you everyone for the reassurance. I'm definitely not as worried anymore and won't be investing money into a fancy pump to build up an unnecessary stash. She usually feeds every 3-4 hours so hopefully by then she will miss out her lunchtime feed and we both will be ok!

I've worked in a nursery before, there's a separate milk fridge and the staff will follow your instructions. So the baby can still have breast milk during the day.

I could never pump but like other posters returned to work at 9/10m and never had an issue she drank and ate during the day just fine. She was still a boob monster through my days off and weekends after an uncomfortable first few days my supply got used to it.