Milk for daycare

[morghendricks]

I am wondering how you guys package your milk for daycare? Do you send it in bags, or bottles? frozen or refrigerated? I am heading back to work next week and was wondering what everyone found to be the easiest way to send milk for daycare? Also, how much "extra" do you send for daycare to have on hand just in case.

[FairyBeautifulMama]

Have you asked your Daycare? When I was working in DC we were not allowed to "make" bottles. So they had to come pre-made and were placed in the fridge. We just warmed them up and we needed them.

[cacasey1981]

You'll have to ask the daycare what works for them.

What we did was bring empty assembled bottles and bags of milk because that was the easiest for them to reheat.

[CEVmommy]

I pumped into the bottles and then put nipples on them and brought them to daycare the next day. Less to wash that way. Plus, daycare washed out the bottles once they were used.

[morghendricks]

Originally Posted by morghendricks I am wondering how you guys package your milk for daycare? Do you send it in bags, or bottles? frozen or refrigerated? I am heading back to work next week and was wondering what everyone found to be the easiest way to send milk for daycare? Also, how much "extra" do you send for daycare to have on hand just in case.

I did ask daycare but they told me whatever I thought was best so looking for suggestions others found worked best. Thanks for all the help !

[hpfgirl]

I sent the bottles pumped from the day before, plus whatever number of frozen bags I needed to make up the difference in what he needed. I could never pump as much as he used during daycare. So, at the beginning I would send 4 full bottles all ready to go with nipples, 2 empty clean bottles, and 2 frozen bags. She could save the frozen if she didn't use them that day.

Now that he's close to weaning, I just send the bottles I pumped the day before.

[alisha_roseleip]

I am far enough a month out on pumped milk that my fresh milk goes in the freezer, so I pump into bottles, transfer to bags and then take the older frozen bags to daycare when he goes. I take enough for the day +1 bag. All of mine are froze into 3 oz bags. I just take them drop in bottles with the liners already in them so all they have to do is thaw the frozen and put in the bottle. I started freezing it in smaller amounts because daycare here can not reuse the bottle so if I took an 8 oz bottle they had to dump the other 5 if he only ate 3, so that would be my suggestion to ask about

[CEVmommy]

I would suggest always using fresh over frozen when available, because freezing does damage some of the good properties of the milk. I just used frozen as a backup.

[blackbirdmama*3]

Originally Posted by CEVmommy I pumped into the bottles and then put nipples on them and brought them to daycare the next day. Less to wash that way. Plus, daycare washed out the bottles once they were used.

This

Originally Posted by CEVmommy I would suggest always using fresh over frozen when available, because freezing does damage some of the good properties of the milk. I just used frozen as a backup.

And this. I also sent frozen bags in 1 and 2 ounce portions for her to have on hand in case we ran out randomly. It worked out great.

[amb2j]

I sent pre-made bottles and asked them to SAVE all of his un eaten milk. That way I can always know how much he is eating. I usually keep a bottle's worth (frozen in a bag in their freezer) as back-up and they will let me know if theyve used it so I can replace it as needed. You might also want to ask about DSS rules for labeling bottles with names/dates. If you need name labels, inchbug.com is pretty good. They are reusable bands you wrap around your bottles that have your LOs name. the label is discreet so "strangers" cant see it from afar. I usually date the bottles on a daily basis with a dry erase marker.