Nursery and expressed milk

[ShyCrab]

Hi all,
Looking for some advice please. My DD is almost 9 months and will be starting nursery in September. She loves her milk and is still feeding every few hours. I’m trying to work out how much expressed breast milk I need to send her to nursery with - she will be doing full days 3 days a week, does anyone have any experience with this?
She has the odd 4/6oz bottle but I mostly still feed her myself for ease/convenience so I’m not completely sure how many oz she is taking in a day.
I’m a bit worried she won’t cope/will refuse the bottle but as she’ll be 10 months I’m hoping she will adapt quickly and eat more food. I’m planning on pumping at work but would like to try to cut down on ebf once she is 12 months.

thanks in advance

I'd try asking Nursery how often they offer bottles. If she were FF the recommendation is to have 400ml/13.5 floz a day from 10 months.

You might find that Nursery prefer offering more solids than bottles.

When my DS started nursery at 11 months I filled in a reference sheet that they stuck on the wall in the baby room. There was a box for amount of milk for morning feed and another for afternoon feed. So they only expected to give up to 2 a day. And I suspect "amount" was more for making up formula but as I was supplying breast milk it was whatever I packed that day, usually 4 to 5 ounces.

And I only supplied one bottle because he was quite happy with solids by that age, though he was a little bit older than your DD.

He was also happy to drink it cold, in a straw cup, which I think made it easier for them.

My advice would be to send several small portions because once reheated it then has to be used within an hour in a nursery setting. You don’t want to have 6/7oz warmed and she only drinks 3oz, wasting breast milk is devastating.

Talk to nursery about how often they would typically offer milk to a baby this age. If she takes 4-6 ounces in a bottle I'd start with this as an approximate per bottle and see how she gets on. I imagine her eating habits will be completely different at nursery with all the activities and social eating and she will quickly move towards eating more solids there and fill up on BM when she gets home. At this stage and as long as she drinks water don't worry too much about bottle refusing although be prepared that she may up her night feeds for a while to compensate.

That's exactly how it went for us

I sent my bf daughter to nursery at that age with formula and she usually had 0-3oz twice a day. She had a bottle aversion and refused all bottles cups and liquids. Good breastfeeds before and after. At 10 months we managed to get her solely on formula and she had 5 Oz twice a day.
I would probably send in 2*4oz for the first week and ask them to record how much she takes and adjust from there.

Thank you everyone for the responses, I’ll speak to nursery and see what they say. She will take breast milk from a bottle if there’s no alternative. I would love for her to be eating more solids as I feel like she holds out for milk! She’s a booby fanatic haha

I found that mine are fine when they were away from me, especially at Nursery. Like a PP said she may increase feeds at night but that's normal for 9 months anyway.

I fed on wake up, on pick up and bedtime but they were still having night feeds too.

Once she's 12 months you can try some gentle night weaning.

Thank you. She does seem to be ok but when she clocks me she’s suddenly hungry! She’s feeding 3/4 times at night currently but I’m hoping to gently wean her off when she’s 12 months.