How Much Milk To Send To Daycare

Are you getting ready to send your infant to daycare? Here's everything you need to know nearly how to prep breast milk bottles for daycare – how to pack bottles, how to label them, and how to send them to daycare.

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How does your daycare want you lot to send chest milk?

First, it'due south a good thought to ask about your daycare'southward policies for sending breast milk. Each daycare will accept a different system or rules.

For instance, some of the the systems that I've seen include:

• Most daycares will want you bring in prepped bottles that are ready to feed.
• Some may inquire you to bring in make clean bottles and bags of frozen milk.
• Other daycares may desire you to bring in ane clean bottle for feeding and Thermos-type container of milk that they will cascade into the bottle.

Find out equally early on as you can what your daycare's rules and procedures are for chest milk, considering it might influence what you do before your baby starts there. (For instance, some daycares crave frozen breast milk bags to be labeled in a sure manner.)

How to prep bottles for daycare

Hither are my tips and tricks for sending breast milk to daycare.

i. Prepping fresh milk

After you pump the milk, yous demand to prep the bottles for your babe to potable.

If your infant drinks out of the same bottles that you pump into, this will be super easy – merely pour milk from 1 canteen into another until you lot have the right amounts in each. Then, screw on the nipples and caps.

I recommend prepping bottles the night earlier if you can – I usually did it as shortly equally I walked in the door, before putting them in my fridge. Anything to make mornings easier!

I would get 3 sets of bottles if possible – one to send to daycare, 1 to pump into, and one to launder. If necessary, yous can do 2 sets and accept the launder/pump into be the aforementioned, but then y'all may have to pack up bottles that haven't fully dried.

Notation: If your baby won't have the bottles that came with your pump, see if you can screw the bottles that your baby will drink from into your pump. (For example, yous tin can spiral Dr Brown's bottles into Medela pumps.)

If not, meet if you can go an adapter and make pumping into your baby'southward feeding bottles work that manner. Here is a not bad comparison nautical chart to aid y'all figure out if this is possible with your breast pump/canteen combination.

Washing one set of bottles (versus a prepare for pumping and one for feeding) will save you so much fourth dimension!

two. Prepping frozen milk for daycare

If you're planning on prepping bottles with frozen milk, you have 2 options for thawing it – cold water or the fridge.

Thawing milk in the refrigerator takes 12-24 hours, so if y'all have that fourth dimension, that may exist easiest. Put the bags into a bowl to thaw in case of leaks.

If y'all don't have that much time, utilise common cold water. Merely put the bags into a bowl of cold water and they should thaw in 10-15 minutes.

In one case the milk is thawed, y'all pour the milk into bottles for baby to eat and screw on the nipples and caps.

Breast milk should be consumed or discarded within 24 hours of completely thawing. (The 24 hour clock doesn't kickoff when you take the milk out, it starts when it completely thaws.)

More than on thawing breast milk here.

3. Labeling your chest milk bottles for daycare

Most daycares will want yous to characterization your baby'southward bottles with his or her name – manifestly, you don't want your milk to go to another infant (or vice versa)!

You tin can exercise this with a label similar Mabel'south Labels (I used them and they are really beautiful!), or you can just put a piece of masking or painter'due south tape with your baby's name on the canteen.

Some people besides similar to label their bottles with the time their babe should take the bottle or the order that the bottles should be fed in.

This might exist needed if baby takes different amounts at different feedings, or if a bottle will expire earlier in the day. (For example, if you lot drop baby off at 8am, and a canteen finished defrosting xx hours ago, you'd desire to feed information technology before noon.)

To do this, you tin utilise tape (as described above), or a dry erase marker.

4. How to send breast milk to daycare

Once you lot accept your bottles prepped and labeled, y'all'll want to put them in some kind of purse to transport them.

If y'all have a short trip to daycare, you lot can just put the prepped bottles in a zilch-top plastic bag. If you have a longer trip or adopt a cooler bag, y'all tin can get 1 like this:

I would put the prepped bottles in the cooler bag in the fridge overnight with the removable ice pack in the freezer, and then in the morning when it's time to go, only popular the ice pack in the libation, and yous're all ready.

(More breast milk cooler options here.)

Should you lot feed fresh or frozen milk at daycare?

In the big picture, it doesn't matter – exercise what works best for your family.

The just affair I would suggest is not to freeze milk if your daycare doesn't require information technology or you're going to employ information technology within the next iv days – don't freeze it but to freeze it. Fresh milk will be fine in the fridge for for that long, it is easier to manage, and you don't take to use a breastmilk storage bag.

How many bottles should your transport?

A lot depends on your baby – it's normal for a baby to swallow twenty oz per day or twoscore oz per twenty-four hour period, so it depends on the private.

It also depends on how long you'll be away at piece of work. You'll obviously need more bottles if you lot're a nurse working a 12 hour shift than if you work 8 hours a day with a short commute.

My kids were in daycare for 9-10 hours, and I usually sent iv iv oz bottles with them (about half the fourth dimension, I got ane bottle dorsum). You lot may not demand that much (my kids were big eaters), but hopefully that gives you an idea or a place to outset.

What tips practice yous have for prepping bottles for daycare? Share them in the comments!

Source: https://exclusivepumping.com/prep-bottles-for-daycare/

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