Back to work and daycare
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Category: General Chat
Forum Name: General Chat
Forum Description: For mums, dads, parents-to-be, grandparents, friends -- you name it! And you name the topic you want to chat about!
URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=42073
Printed Date: 24 August 2025 at 2:55pm
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Topic: Back to work and daycare
Posted By: mieke10
Subject: Back to work and daycare
Date Posted: 21 May 2012 at 9:06am
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Hi everyone, I have found this website invaluable since I had my first wee girl 10 weeks ago and I was just looking for some advice/experiences about going back to work and daycare.
I'm not going back to work for another few months when DD is about 5 1/2 months old but really just want to know about feeding her at daycare. I want to keep her on EBM if possible as I'll only be at work for 2 days a week but I'll be dropping her off at about 7.30am and I won't be home until 5.30pm. Hubby will be picking her up when he finishes work which can be anytime from 10am through till 4.30pm. I want to have a rough idea of how much EBM she might need during the day as I want to start expressing soon to make sure I have enough to keep her on it while I'm at work. I don't want to waste it but don't want her to starve either. Could she be drinking water during the day as well or is this too young? What about solids as I read somewhere that you can start trying them on solids around that 5 month age. I seem to have waffled on a bit but any advice would be a great help as I like to be organised, as you can tell since I'm not going back to work for another 3 months 
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Replies:
Posted By: kernowexile
Date Posted: 21 May 2012 at 11:12am
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There is a forum at the bottom of the list of forums which has recently been started about going back to work - you might find some more ideas there too http://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=53 - Working
------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: pumpkino
Date Posted: 21 May 2012 at 1:44pm
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Hiya
Congrats on your baby :) It's hard planning so far ahead as everything will be very different by then but you don't know in advance what your baby will be doing. I can only pass on what happened with my boys so may or may not be helpful. When I went back to work with DS1 he was 9 months old and we were still breastfeeding. He did have solids but his primary source of nutrition was breastmilk (this is true of most children until they turn one). I was working 3 days a week and like you wanted to keep up the breastfeeding for as long as possible. Unfortunately I simply couldn't express enough to keep up with his demand, for some reason I have always been useless at expressing! It's also really hard work if you're having to do it a lot as you have to wash and sterilise the pump parts every time, and the whole exercise took me ages - I just didn't have the time to spend an hour expressing (half an hour each side) plus washing/sterilising. However you might find this way easier. Can't help re the amount of EBM you would need per feed - would depend on your baby's weight etc. You'll get the idea pretty quickly though - defrost a full bottle by leaving it in the fridge rather than actually heating it and then you can keep using the milk for 24 hours - so you will be able to see how much she takes at each feed without wasting any. Maybe freeze your milk in varying amounts (eg 50 or 100ml batches) so that you have some flexibility when the time comes. If, like me, expressing just doesn't work out, another option might be to actually go to daycare to feed your baby if you choose one that's close to where you work and they're happy for you to do it (mine would have been but was too far away). In my case I ended up switching to formula for the day time feeds and continuing to breast feed before and after work. I had to do that on the days I didn't work as well - while breasts are pretty amazing at meeting supply and demand mine couldn't quite the hang of "less milk on Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays please, usual amount the other days". It wasn't ideal but meant that he still got a decent amount of breastmilk each day which was better than nothing. re solids - the thinking on when to introduce changes all the time. I was always told to BF exclusively until 6 months and then start introducing solids but keep milk as the main source of nutrition until the age of one. This is because babies' digestive systems aren't developed enough to properly digest solid food until then - it will just pass straight through with minimal nutrition being extracted on the way. So yes you can definitely start introducing solids at 5 months but your baby will definitely still need a substantial amount of milk throughout the day as well, so you can't rely on weaning to solve your problem. re drinking water - breast fed babies don't need water because the composition of your milk changes to accommodate their needs eg in hot weather it becomes more watery. If you give your baby water it certainly won't harm her in any way but will probably make her feel full so that she doesn't take as much milk and therefore gets less nutrition. This is why we need more paid parental leave - going back to work even part time can negatively impact on breastfeeding but many of us have no choice :( Hope this helps in some small way, good luck!! |
Posted By: mieke10
Date Posted: 21 May 2012 at 8:30pm
Thanks so much pumpkino, I did think that maybe it will have to be a switch to formula for when I go back to work, unfortunately I work too far away from daycare to be able to feed her but will just have to see as we get a bit closer to the time and decide what to do 
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Posted By: Shelt
Date Posted: 21 May 2012 at 9:09pm
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I went back to work when my DD was just under 5 months old and she was breastfed and on EBM to start with. I expressed from when she was about 3 months old and stored it in 50ml lots. I can't remember how much she was drinking during the day but I do remember that I used to feed her in the morning before daycare, then straight after work (5/5.30pm ish) and then again before bed at about 9pm. I think she had 1 - 2 bottles during the day and started on rice cereal at about 6 months. I found it hard with introducing solids as I wanted to introduce one vege at a time initially and only a few spoonfuls to start with but daycare just fed her mashed up mix of veges and how ever much she wanted to eat.
You could have a look on the back of the formula tins in the supermarket, I think from memory they give guidelines as to how much babies drink at certain ages. Make sure you start cutting back the feeds and doing the EBM bottle with your DD a few weeks before you go back to work. This will get her used to it and prepare your body for dropping that/those feeds. Or if you are going to be expressing at work you could express after you feed her at home. I never managed to express at work, there was nowhere to do it and I couldn't see myself sitting in the toilets expressing. I stopped BF at 6.5 months as DD ended up in hospital and my milk dried up but I had enough EBM for her to continue to have bottles of it for another 3 or so weeks afterwards. It was hard work though, coming home from work, feeding DD, cooking dinner, bathing her and getting her into bed, expressing, feeding her again and then expressing again. Hope some of that helps. Good luck. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Shelt
Date Posted: 21 May 2012 at 9:17pm
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Just to clarify - I expressed from when DD was 3 months but I didn't store the EBM for going back to work until about 3 weeks before. I can't remember how long you can freeze BM for. But anyway, I used the BM from when I started expressing to give DD bottles of EBM to get her used to it during the day. I had some trouble getting her to take a bottle which is why she initially only had one feed during the day while I was at work, she just point blank refused to take a bottle unless she was desperate. It took about 3 - 4 weeks of her being in daycare to settle into a more regular feeding routine with a bottle. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Danda08
Date Posted: 21 May 2012 at 9:24pm
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I expressed for 15 mins (on a double electric pump) after every feed from the time my twins were born until they were 5 months old and like the others stored it in various sized containers, from ice cube trays to EBM freezer bags.
My girls had EBM top ups after most feeds and EBM bottles at night so DH could help, so the supply was rotated quickly - I can't remember how long you can store EBM in the freezer but it was possible to build up a good supply doing it that way. The downside was it was very timeconsuming and as someone mentioned above the constant washing and sterilising the equip was enough to drive me batty. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: lisame
Date Posted: 23 May 2012 at 9:15am
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I went back to work when our little girl was 5 1/2 months too.
Just a couple of things about EBM - your milk changes a lot as time goes on, so what you express now is going to be quite different to what you express in three months' time! There are formulas you can use to estimate how much milk you might need at each feed, just google - based on your baby's age, weight, and how many times she feeds each day. On average between one to six months, they can have around 750mL over 24 hours, but that can vary between 550mL to 900mL. It is a bit of trial and error. Agree with the suggestion to have it stored in smaller amounts & defrost in the fridge. On solids: we started at around 4 1/2 months; if your baby is showing signs of being ready (have a look on this site for a list) then latest advice is anytime after 4 mths is ok. The important thing though is that milk is their main food source to 9 mths/even 1 year - so solids always come after milk. Make sure your daycare do this too. bottles - At 10 weeks you should start trying to get her used to a bottle now. BFing should be well established so won't be disrupted by it. I used to express a night feed during the day from quite early on (I was useless as expressing too so took me a few feeds, her on one side, expressing on the other) and then that was her 10pm feed from a bottle. It also means you don't have to do that last night feed and can go to bed early :-) Edited to add: forgot to say that I was advised NOT to give water until they are starting to wean; otherwise that can replace milk, and they get nothing good out of water. Even in really hot weather it's suggested to just BF more often rather than offering water. And more: are you dutch? I know a little girl called Meike. And our little girl is called Madeleine (I saw your post in the name thread). I suspect you're european descent, spelling it that way? Most kiwis seem to spell it 'Madeline'. |
Posted By: mieke10
Date Posted: 31 May 2012 at 1:39pm
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Thanks for all the advice everyone, I have been trying to get Maddie to take a bottle but she isn't so keen at the moment but we'll just keep plugging away at it.
Lisame - No I'm not dutch, I come from a German family but my Mum knew someone called Mieke when she was growing up and loved the name, as for Madeleine I just like the way it was spelt with the extra e, prob due to my German roots, I like the european spelling.
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Posted By: lisame
Date Posted: 31 May 2012 at 1:42pm
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ha, we have a Maddie too ;-)
with bottles - maybe try someone else giving it to her. Sometimes babies don't like to take it when they know that mum's boob is right there. |