can't keep up with demand while at work

[adkillip]

Hello I'm looking for any advice, I have run out of ideas.
My LO just turned 9 mon. He is 20% for weight but a very good eater. During the week he attends Daycare fulltime and has 3 7.5oz bottles and 2 meals with them. However, ever since he upped his bottles to 7.5 oz I have not been able to keep up with pumping that amount. I am 3-4oz short every day. I am coming to the end of the my frozen milk supply. I pump 3x a day at work. The last week I have expressing milk at night after his feeds to try and up my storage but have seen no results. I nurse him on wake up, before dinner, at bedtime and 1-2 NF during the week.
Does anyone have any suggestion?
I really don't want to supplement with formula if I can help it.

Thank you

[becj86]

You're actually doing really well with pumping! I'm not sure why the bottles of breastmilk are so large. I know some daycare places have little understanding of the change in breastmilk contents and that there is little need to increase volume of bottle and will therefore tell you that you need to increase the bottle volume but if you're feeding 4-5 times per day without the bottles, then those bottles don't necessarily need to be that big.
Have a read here: http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

Do you mind saying why daycare wants so much milk? In my experience, they will sometimes feed a baby to sleep and if his A time needs an increase, he might be taking longer to fall asleep so they think he needs more milk...

[Shiv52]

I thought that too. I think he's having too much milk at daycare. At 9 months 4/5 good milk feeds is the norm. So if you are feeding him in the morning, dinner and bedtime that's already three. So really they only need to do 2 bottles. I'd get them to make the three bottles smaller or ask them to replace a bottle with a snack instead.

What time is he at daycare?

[adkillip]

He is at Daycare from 7:30 to 4:30. They upped his bottles because he was acting hungry and trying to get more milk out of the empty bottles. I thought he eats a lot, but his pediatrician told me at his 9 mon. check up not to be concerned since he is small for his age. He is following the growth curve nicely. I'm not sure how much he is getting when he breastfeeds, but I noticed when he went to a different daycare when they were on vacation and didn't finish all his bottles he woke up more frequently at night to nurse.
I know it seems like he is getting lots of milk along with solids, but I don't want him to go hungry.
1st bottle 7:30, solids 8:15
nap at 9:30 (short)
2nd bottle 11:30, solids 12:00
nap 12:30 (long)
3rd bottle 3:00, sometimes snack if still hungry

-So they aren't using bottles for sleep
I'm just concerned that my nursing aren't good feeds and he is getting most of his milk from bottles.

But I understand what you're saying, I have looked at the boards and know that he seems to be getting more milk than others his age.

sorry for the long explanation, just trying to give a good picture of my concerns

[adkillip]

oh i forgot his lunch and afternoon bottle he drinks out of a sippy cup

[becj86]

Bottles don't give the same amount of work to suck and therefore less sucking comfort for LO compared with the breast. Maybe try a smaller/different teat so he has to work a bit harder for it?

When's he WU feed if he's scoffing a 7.5oz bottle at 7:30?

In your shoes, I'd probably halve the two "snack" bottles.

Sorry, just realised I have to get ready to go, will expand on my post later.

[adkillip]

He's hungriest for the am bottle, he scarfs it down the fastest.
I should mention that if he has a late NF after 3:30 he won't do a WU feed (not interested) and will feed next at 7:30.
Do you think a sippy cup gives more or less work than a bottle? He is using a soft sprout.

[~*Nicole*~]

What is he having for solids and what quantity? I don't think you would have to sub formula but if you can tweak some other things, reduce NFs if possible and use one of those times solely for pumping. Adding in yogurt or other solids and slowly allowing the daytime bottles to reduce in amount and maybe consolidate to two as opposed to three. He is heading into an age where although he enjoys milk he is not nutritionally lacking for not having that many bottles each day. Meaning that you can continue nursing and offering whatever you do get when you pump but otherwise he can start having water in his sippy cup with snack (can dilute his milk with water if he doesn't like plain water at the start until it's slowly all water) or upping his solids a little bit and never having to sub formula. Just redistributing his feeds slowly might help.

Have you also tried anything to up your supply? Fenugreek, lactation cookies? Might be worth trying if you do want to increase your supply.

But otherwise, seeing as he IS getting the recommended amount (or more) for his age, I wouldn't worry about supplementing with formula at all.

[adkillip]

He is having Gerber stage 2 baby food as the main solid and then snacks on gerber puffs, curls, yogurt melts. He also trys and explores food from my plate at dinner (ex. chicken, pulled pork, diced pears, ripe bananas). so far he doesn't like the texture of fruit but loves meat. working on trying vegetables. He has yogurt every other day.
He has 3.5 oz jar at B, 1-2 3.5oz jars at Lunch (depending on hunger), 3.5 oz jar at dinner plus finger food.

I understand he is starting to enter the transition stage to more solids. so maybe I should just have them use whatever I pump for his bottles and consistently give him a snack with is afternoon bottle to keep him happy and full.

he doesn't have any problems with water, in fact he often asks for a sip out of my cup when he sees me fill up my cup at the faucet

[~*Nicole*~]

I think that would be fine.