Not taking enough at daycare?

[@llli*vtmtbkr]

My DD is a little over 3 months and is away from me at daycare for 12 hours a day. 6:15am to 6:00pm. In that time she's only taking between 8-10 ounces. So under the 1-1.5 ounce/hour. She also nurses 1-2x in the evenings (7pm & 9pm), 2x over night, and once in the morning (6am). Shouldn't she be eating more at daycare?

I'm hoping its the little cold she's got. She's also sleeping a lot (4.5 hours at daycare on Monday). And since she only started last week I've got nothing to compare it to.

[@llli*still.here]

I think if you give her more time to get comfortable at the day care she will start to take more. If she just started last week she's probably still going through that tough transition period. My daughter refused to eat at all for the first 3 days she was in day care, but she settled after a while and worked herself into a more normal pattern.

[@llli*bfwmomof3]

I agree. Plus she's sick, that may be affecting her appetite and may be the reason she's sleeping a lot too.

[@llli*melindab]

It can be normal to eat small amounts. Some kids don't eat at all. Its called reverse cycling.
My 10mo will has never taken milk or solids while away from me and i've been gone up to 6hrs

[@llli*lehall]

After a few more days to settle in, you will want to start keeping tabs on how many times she is eating in a 24 hour period. If she's not eating at DC but making up for it otherwise, you are okay. If overall intake is dropping, you will need to figure out strategies to deal with that.

[@llli*vtmtbkr]

Three weeks into daycare and she's still a little stuffy and is taking (4) 2.5 ounce bottles, and nursing 4-5 times a day. I do not want her to reverse cycle and am trying to cut out one of the overnight feedings hoping it will make her more hungry during the day. We are not a co-sleeping family (she's slept in her own room since we brought her home).

[@llli*bfwmomof3]

That does seem a bit on the low side, especially since your total number of feedings/day are at 8-9 - I mean if you were feeding her 6 or 7 times at home I think there would be less of a concern. How has her weight gain been? Are they feeding her on cue or according to a schedule? Are you giving them 2.5 ounce bottles? What happens if they offer 3 ounce bottles? If she took (4) 3 ounce bottles then she'd hit the 1 ounce/hour mark.

[@llli*vtmtbkr]

They are feeding her on demand but usually every 3 hours. She is happy with 2.5 ounces and they even have a hard time getting her to take the last 1/2 ounce. I'd put more in the bottles but the daycare will throw it out if she doesn't drink it within an hour so I just keep asking if they think she will take more soon. We don't go back to the doctor until Feb 25 but I think her weight gain is ok. Certainly not on the fast side. Her last check-up was 11-8 and I'd guess that she's maybe gained a lb in the past 4 weeks. DD1 was a slow weight gainer too. I call my milk "skim" because there isn't much fat content. I'm just not used to not taking much milk, DD1 started daycare at the same time and was drinking 3.5 ounce per bottle.

[@llli*bfwmomof3]

I hear you on not wanting them to throw away milk! You could send in 1/2 ounce bottles in addition to the 2.5 ounces... so they have it to offer in case she does seem like she would take more. And maybe ask them to offer every 2.5 hours?

[@llli*vtmtbkr]

Making progress!

They've started offering bottles every 2.5 hours and she seems to doing ok with it. We had 2 days with 12 ounces total. Yeah! I've been trying to slowly increase the bottles and this morning put in 2.75 ounces.

Also we put a heater in her room which seems to have improved her sleep! I'm only feeding her once in the night around 1:30-2:00 and shes taking a full feeding at 6:00 when we get her up! She is still waking up around 12:00-12:30 but is content with a pacifier.