How many breast feeds does my DD need

[joey123]

I am stressing out because in a couple of months my DD will start day care / family day care (yet to be finalised). She is BF and is having some solids, but breast milk definately makes up most of her intake. She will be 10 months then.

My problem is that she won't take expressed milk, fresh or from the day before, in a cup, sippy cup or bottle.

I will be able to BF her when she first wakes at 5.30am and again at 8am when I drop her off and go back at 1.15pm to feed her in my break, but what if she won't take any EBM between those hours?

She is not eating enough at the moment to fill her up, she is still mainly experimenting with food. If I concerntrate more on the solids, will it be ok for her to miss that feed?

I will be picking her up at 3.30pm so she can have another BF then, and will have one at about 6.30pm before bed and once, sometimes twice during the night. So that adds up to 6, maybe 7 feeds in 24 hours, so perhaps I just need to get her comfortable filling her tummy with solids?? And it is only 2 days a week (may be 3).

Maybe I have answered my own question, but would love to hear from those of you who have some thoughts.

Thanks.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I am not 100% and i'm sure someone can be more certain for you but i think 6-7 feeds at that age aswell as solids is quite good.

I know with my newborn she is to have 6 feeds minimum in 24hrs, at the moment she feeds every 3-4 hours so is only getting 6-8 feeds a day.

If you slowly increase the solids etc then missing say 1 feed shouldn't make too much of an issue.. IMO, i think by 10mths my DD was only having say 4-5 BF's a day and she was still happy and putting on weight.

GL with it all.

[Kmn]

Bean was 11 months old when I returned to full time work and his dad returned to full time Daddying. At the time he was having some solids and 4 bfs in the time I would be away. He would reluctantly take a small amount of milk from a bottle or cup but it was a battle.
By following his lead we found that he settled in to:
small amount of EBM when he woke up, remainder of bottle on his cereal.
THen food and water through the day in small amounts
and a big cluster feed when I got home.

The only downside to this was that he started waking up in the night much more frequently for feeding....
She needs some sort of fluid while you are away. Can you work on water rather than EBM?? Even if its only 10 mls at a time it will keep her hydrated.

[joey123]

Yes. She will quite happily drink water out of a bottle or sippy cup, so that is no problem. I was more concerned about her going hungry.

[Jennifer13]

joey, that sounds like plenty of bfs, and you'll probably find she will make up for not having access to you for those hours with a huge bf when you pick her up or visit her.

You might also find that without bfing as an option she happily eats food and drinks water. And it isn't happening for a few months yet, you'll be surprised how much more 'food' she eats by 10 mths than she is now. TBH my DD only really started getting into food at 7 mths and by 10 mths was easily devouring proper small meals of leftovers!

Don't stress, I think you and she will be fine!

[joey123]

Thanks everyone. I think I have it sorted. I have started expressing and freezing it into ice cube trays and soon I will start her on vita brits and she can have some EBM with that when she wakes after her first sleep at child care. So I will be able to feed her when she wakes at 5.30, when I drop her off at 8, EBM with her cereal around 9.30, snacks of solids until 1.15pm when I call in to feed her during my lunch break and put her down for her second nap and then I pick her up at 3.30pm, so I can feed her whenever need be from then on. She is still waking in the night, and I dream feed her at about 8.30pm, just before I go to bed, so I think she will still end up with around 7 serves of breast milk in a 24 hour period.

My husband thinks I'm crazy worrying about this now, seeing it's still 2 months away... but if I don't, who will. And I am starting to try and fit her feeds/meals and sleeps around this routine so when she starts going to care, there is no change in her routine, just the people around her. I'm also going to book her in a couple of days before she has to start, so she can have some half days there, and before that I'm going to just call in every now and again to say hi with her so she gets used to the place.