Feelign a tad bit...stupid

[JWills]

Okay, my daughter has been BF exlusively since she came home from the hospital (she is 2 1/2 months now). I have been trying (unsucessfully) to introduce a bottle (with expressed breastmilk). However, I fear that my time as a stay at home mom is coming to a fast end, and I have to go back to work. As soon as I know that she will sucessfully take a bottle, I will feel comfortable leaving her in the care of someone else.

So my question is: If I put her in day care, and she is taking breastmilk from a bottle, HOW the heck does one store it?? I mean, at home its easy...just pop it in the fridge or freezer, and heat it when I need it. But what about daycare?? Do I put the bottles in her diaper bag and hope they are still good for her to drink from by the end of the day? Or do daycares have little mini fridges to store these things in? LOL I feel so dumb, but honestly I never thought about how to go about storing breastmilk anywhere but home.

[dcroberts]

Surely your daycare center will have a fridge. Label the bottles clearly, and be sure the provider knows that you have brought them. To safely transport the milk yourself, you can put the bottles in a little soft sided, zipper style cooler with an ice pack or two. There has always been a free set up in the diaper bag that I've been given at the hospital. You might also ask the daycare how they plan to reheat the bottles. Some Moms don't like to have the breast milk microwaved and prefer to have it heated in hot water. As for your baby successfully taking a bottle, my babies have always preferred to take a bottle from someone other than me!

[eniese]

Our daycare has a fridge with boxes labeled with each babies name for the breastmilk bottles to go in. They use a little electric bottle warmer to heat the bottles. Talk to your daycare provider about what they will do if she's having a hard time taking a bottle. Some places will just call you every time she balks so they don't have to listen to her cry, while other places are better about working with the babies and training them to take the bottle. Also, when you're pumping at work, either store your milk in the refrigerator (if you have one) or make sure you have good icepacks in a little cooler. If you use a communal refrigerator to store your milk, make sure it's labeled and placed somewhere safe!