Wasting milk
Nov. 9th, 2010 07:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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plan_surviveV is 9.5 months old and goes to group daycare 2 days a week.
At home, he still does a lot of breastfeeding although his food intake is steadily increasing. (See a typical day here.) At the centre I think he takes somewhat more food than he does at home: they spoon feed and at home he eats finger foods.
During the daycare periods, I still pump three times and get at least 450mL (15oz) and 550mL (18.5oz) is not unheard of, and this is without the really rigorous style of pumping: I stop as soon as the flow has really dropped rather than wringing every last drop out. I definitely can not stop pumping entirely: I need at least two pumping sessions or it gets painful.
But he no longer consumes anything like 450mL when he is at daycare. 200mL is more typical. He doesn't really make it up at night on those nights either, I think the solids they give him are substituting. (I have no idea what his intake when we're together is like, but it probably is similar to what I pump.)
I realise that this is something of an anti-problem but it makes me sad to throw out that much milk (as we have to if it is thawed) and soon we are going to run out of room in our freezer if my supply keeps exceeding demand.
What do you think? Should I pump less? Actively encourage my supply to drop (somehow)?
There are no milk banks that accept donations from a woman in Sydney, NSW. I cannot donate the milk. (And even if there were, milk banks in Australia seem to prefer donations from women whose child is under 6 months of age.)
At home, he still does a lot of breastfeeding although his food intake is steadily increasing. (See a typical day here.) At the centre I think he takes somewhat more food than he does at home: they spoon feed and at home he eats finger foods.
During the daycare periods, I still pump three times and get at least 450mL (15oz) and 550mL (18.5oz) is not unheard of, and this is without the really rigorous style of pumping: I stop as soon as the flow has really dropped rather than wringing every last drop out. I definitely can not stop pumping entirely: I need at least two pumping sessions or it gets painful.
But he no longer consumes anything like 450mL when he is at daycare. 200mL is more typical. He doesn't really make it up at night on those nights either, I think the solids they give him are substituting. (I have no idea what his intake when we're together is like, but it probably is similar to what I pump.)
I realise that this is something of an anti-problem but it makes me sad to throw out that much milk (as we have to if it is thawed) and soon we are going to run out of room in our freezer if my supply keeps exceeding demand.
What do you think? Should I pump less? Actively encourage my supply to drop (somehow)?
There are no milk banks that accept donations from a woman in Sydney, NSW. I cannot donate the milk. (And even if there were, milk banks in Australia seem to prefer donations from women whose child is under 6 months of age.)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 09:43 pm (UTC)This is based on my own experience: My son started rejecting my p milk fairly suddenly around 8-9 months, when I was working short days. Once he could eat enough solids to keep him going for my 6-hour absence he drank less and less bottled milk and drank more direct from the source instead. We used some of the frozen milk for babysitters when we had the occasional evenings out, but I ended up having to throw away quite a lot of frozen milk when I finally had to admit it was over 6 months old and wasn't going to be used. I wish I'd stopped pumping sooner.
My body seemed quite good at adapting to different weekday/weekend demand patterns, so I would hope your supply would not be badly affected, as you'd still have demand from your son direct on the non-daycare days.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 10:09 pm (UTC)My supply seems fairly responsive, so what I think I'll do is aim to cut pumping to about 300mL for now, which probably means two sessions rather than three.
As a bonus, this will probably mean more milk available for his reunion feed, which is huge.