The number of milk removals in 24 hours should stay the same when you return to work, as it was while at home with your baby. Click here
to read more about pumping and work.
WHEN DOES YOUR BABY DRINK MILK?
As long as your baby’s hunger is satisfied and he gains enough weight to follow the growth curve, it doesn’t matter when in the day or night he drinks the milk.However, the feeding schedule that falls into place will affect how much you'll need to pump at work, and also how much sleep you’ll get at night.
- If your baby gets most of his calories from pumped milk while at daycare, he’ll be less hungry and remove less milk during his time at home with you. This means you’ll need to pump more at work, or during the night, in order to provide enough pumped milk for daycare.
- If the daycare provider paces the bottles and less milk is drunk at daycare, your baby will need to drink more calories while at home with you. This could mean less sleep at night.
Get regular well baby check-ups to monitor the growth curve.
HOW MUCH MILK DOES YOUR BABY DRINK?
You can’t measure what your baby drinks directly from the breast, so it can be tricky to figure out a feeding schedule for daycare. But, healthy babies consume a predictable volume of milk, although there's a big range of what's "normal."- After 4-6 weeks, your baby will drink about 24-32 ounces of milk in 24 hours. This is the volume he’ll need through about 6 months of age. So ideally, you will produce this much milk.
- Click here to read about expected volumes of milk intake.
- At 6 months, add solid foods to this milk intake. Once your baby starts eating more sources of calcium and protein, it’s OK to drink a bit less milk. Then, a reasonable range is around 20-24 ounces of milk per day.
- When you return to work, take the 24 hour total volume of milk and the total number of milk removal sessions (nursing + pumping), and divide it between daycare and home.
The math reveals that he drinks 1 ounce per hour, if he drinks a steady volume througout the day and night (which he won't). But, you can still use this information as a reference point.
- So, if your baby is at daycare for 10 hours, he'll need about 10 ounces of milk during that time, provided he gets the other 14 ounces while he's home with you.
- Thus, you'll need to pump 10 ounces while at work.
And, remember the number of milk removals in 24 hours should stay the same when you return to work, as it was while at home with your baby.
Click here to learn about decreasing milk supply upon return to work.
Kay Anderson MD, IBCLC
5/23