Feeling pressure at daycare

[@llli*sophia1718]

My baby is 5 months old and I give her somewhere between 4-5 oz every bottle every three hrs when she's in care. The day care providers have said before "she takes it right down and is looking for more". She only gets what I pump and that's all there is. She nota big baby but is riding the 40% curve. She's the happiest thing and is thriving. This morning her bottle was just short of 4 oz and the provider asked for more. I told her it was enough, give it to her at 930 and I'll be there for lunch at 12, she's fine.

I know I'm doing the right thing by her it's just irritating. All the babies are formula fed and take down 8 oz of formula every 3 hrs. They say they encourage bf but I'm not getting that vibe. Just venting...

[@llli*maddieb]

What do they mean, exactly, "looking for more?" Crying and screaming? Not falling asleep? Just looking around wondering what's next? etc.

Generally speaking, assuming a baby is able to nurse when they wish when with mom both night and day, and is gaining normally, the general rule of thumb is baby would need between 1 and 1.5 ounces of milk per hour of separation.

Have you taught them how to do paced bottle feeding? That would be the way to slow down how long it takes for baby to finish a bottle.

Maybe it would help to provide smaller bottles, but more of them?

At 5 months, if you are going to hold your ground and not let them overfeed baby, and baby is reasonably content between feedings when comforted other ways, then there is probably no need from your baby's point of view for paced feeding. But if your caregivers are not doing that, maybe if they try it will slow down the feeding enough to keep baby from action like they want more. Because often that has nothing to do with how fast baby ate but how long the feeding was. And if they are not willing to try paced feeding and doing it correctly, then that is on them.

Size of baby is not very relevant. Some babies do want more milk than others and some are going through growth spurts when they want more than at other times. So it is not the same every day and there may indeed be days when baby wants more. But the caregiver is not going to know if this is one of those days at the start of the day.

Sometimes it helps to provide something in writing to the caregiver.

Here is info on bottle feeding the breastfed baby that you can share with your caregiver. http://www.llli.org/docs/00000000000...astfedbaby.pdf

If you look on kellymom.com, I think they provide more precise info on "how much"

Here is a video that explains paced feeding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH4T70OSzGs

[@llli*sophia1718]

this is great! thank you so much! Edited to add: Looking for more means= baby looking around for whats next, not fussy or crying...

[@llli*maddieb]

Looking for more means= baby looking around for whats next, not fussy or crying...

Ok, so maybe they just need some helpful hints for stimulating/interacting with baby. 5 month olds are typically waking up to the world and are looking around to see what there is to see, trying to connect with other humans etc. That is why this is an age they often get so "distracted" they eat less. They are not really distracted but attracted, to the world and people around them.

[@llli*mommal]

A baby who is still hungry is going to fuss or cry for more food. A baby who wants to be held, or played with, or taken on a walk- that baby is going to look around, and act interested in her surroundings.

Does the baby take a pacifier? Maybe that would be something to suggest to her caregivers. It's often an easy sell because daycare providers are generally more experienced with babies who take pacifiers than babies who are breastfed.