How much milk to leave baby when you are away and paced bottle feeding.

For many of us, the anxiety of going back to work or school circles around making enough milk to leave for baby while we are away. It's nerve wracking. But it doesn't have to be.

Lets go over a couple things  
1.) Milk supply cannot be determined by pumping output. Baby is WAY more efficient than the pump, so what you pump out does not equal how much milk you are making for your baby. .5-3oz TOTAL per pumping session is NORMAL. So again, LOW PUMPING OUTPUT DOES NOT EQUAL LOW SUPPLY.

2.) Taking galactagogues to increase milk supply does not have any effect if you are not pumping more to signal to your body that more milk needs to be made. If you are going to take something to increase milk supply for the purpose of pumping, you HAVE TO ADD IN AN ADDITIONAL PUMPING SESSION, or even a few. You have to tell your body that you need more milk. You also need to put baby to your breast as often as possible. Meaning, when you are home, no bottles. 

With those reminders out there, we'll get to the topic at hand. The current research has found that babies (under 6 months) at the breast consume, on average, 25 oz of breast milk in a 24 hour period. Calculate that at 25 oz divided by how many hours between feedings (lets say 3). That's estimating 8 feedings a day at around 3-3.5 oz per feeding. You can also generally assume that baby needs 1-1.5 oz per hour that mom is away. http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/#toomuchlittle

So lets say you are gone for 9 hours between drop off and pick up. For some moms, this doesn't sound like a big deal. 9-13 oz a day, no problem. For a LOT of moms, this sends your anxiety into a tail spin. If I'm only pumping 1.5-2 oz per pumping session and I'm only pumping a couple times a day, how am I ever going to store enough milk so my baby isn't starving!!!!!!!!!!! Trust me, you are not alone in this feeling. Lets consider how you might "schedule" feedings for your baby while you are away. One way that can make it easier to work with a smaller amount of milk is to nurse baby right before you leave for the day. This way, baby gets in a full feeding off the bat. This would mean that baby should be able to go 2-3 hours before their 1st bottle of the day. You could do this in the car, in the daycare facility, or at home if you have an in home caregiver. But try to do it within 10 minutes of leaving baby for the day. If you repeat this as soon as you come to pick baby up, it is probably safe to leave baby with about 6-8 oz for 2 feedings. 

To accomplish this without too much trouble, it is important that your caregiver understand how to pace bottle feedings in a way that mimics breastfeeding. It should take 10-20 minutes for baby to finish a bottle of expressed milk (roughly 5 minutes per oz). I am pasting a link here because it makes the process so easy to understandhttp://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/feeding-tools/bottle-feeding/

In my opinion, this should be a HUGE factor of consideration in choosing a day care provider or in home caregiver. Find out if they have experience with bottle feeding breastfed babies and are they aware of pacing bottles and how it contributes to the health of baby and the breast feeding relationship. It is incredibly worth it!! 

Sometimes, baby will seem to not be eating at all while mom is gone. They may just drink an oz or so to take the edge off, but then be up all night nursing. This is called reverse cycling and is very normal. I will dedicate an entire TOTD to this in a couple days, but it's worth noting that many of you may experience this and it does not mean there is something wrong. It just means baby prefers to nurse and be close to mama. Unless there is a problem or an illness, babies won't starve themselves. 

It is important to remember that every baby is different. While this information may work for most babies, it won't be relevant for all.