How much expressed BM to provide?

[SunnyLuny]

I’m a student midwife, and I have to return to my studies in September. Although I’m a student, it’s still full time work so I will be doing 3x 12.5 hour shifts a week. My baby will be 7 months old (currently 5m) and is EBF. I’ve started pumping and producing a stash of milk for when she joins nursery, I just have some questions as I’ve never expressed and bottle fed before!

How much milk should I provide? As I breastfeed I have no idea how many oz she takes at each feed. When I pump I tend to only get 2/3oz in a 20 minute session, I’m assuming she has more than that though when she feeds from me? She’s also a really small baby, only on the 9th centile so I don’t know if that affects how much milk she takes. She will be weaning at that stage too so again, unsure if that will impact how much milk to provide? I don’t want to give too little but equally I don’t want to provide loads and have it go to waste! She suffers from CMPA so I don’t have any backup formula. Should I be asking the doctor for a prescription so I have some as a precaution?

sorry for all the questions, I’m just having a freakout over leaving her!

My experience (although not as long shifts by any means), was that ds2 wouldn't take milk from a bottle (he was just over 7 months and being looked after by dh), but was happy with water and solids and then would have enormous bfs when I got home.

I'm also sorry to say that he started feeding through the night again, but that calmed down after a few weeks.

As he'll be weaning you might want to consider sending bottles to go with meals, so 3 maybe and then if they need more they can give formula.

All babies are different though, but I never got through the big stash I'd expressed and gave up on expressing at work after about a week, so I was a bit miffed about all that wasted effort!

I'm sorry, I've just realised I ignored the bit about CMPA. Yes, probably best to get some prescription formula to try because it's not a taste they'll all accept so best to know and prepare.

Please start getting your baby used to feeding from a bottle asap. It will be so stressful for you if he isn’t getting it at all and you have to leave him at nursery. It may not happen overnight…

If you're thinking about using hydrolysed or amino acid based formula as a back up, you need to try to get her to take it before she tastes food. Because they taste vile, and once they've started weaning it's incredibly hard to introduce it.

From 1 month to 6 months babies take between 850-1000ml per 24 hours. As your baby will be 7 month and on some solids it will be slight less. So aiming for between maybe 250-400ml in your shifts.

Freeze in small amounts so 40-50 ml that way if your baby doesn't take the whole not much is wasted. Or if he is hungry 50 ml can very quickly be defrosted.

You can talk to childcare about cup feeding if your baby doesn't take a bottle. He may prefer a cup over a bottle.

It terms of pumping it might be worth hiring or buying a hospital grade pump so you can speed up the expressing. Maybe look at the ones you have at work so you can use bring in a collection kit during your shift. Double check you have the right flange size too as this can change. Then have a look at hands on expressing. Most of the videos focus on it for premmie babies but it is just as worthwhile for older ones to speed up the time at the pump.