My husband and I want to take a trip in Feb for five days. We would leave our 5 1/2 month old daughter with my parents. I would have enough milk stored up and I would plan to pump while gone. I want to be able to breast feed when I get back. Do I have to worry about my milk supply decreasing just pumping for five days? Any tips or suggestions from moms who have let breastfed babies?
Additional Information:
My daughter who is 3 months old now takes one bottle at night from me or someone esle. She was introduced to a bottle at 5 weeks and has taken bottles (when needed) just fine. She is on a schedule of feedings every three hours and sleeps through the night. She is just started to strench her feedings out to every four hours. Thanks for all the comments!
I took a trip for a conference when one of my babies was about that age, I was gone for 6 nights. I pumped and dumped every 4 hours while I was gone and my boy was just fine being taken care of by my mother and my husband. My advice is to pump according to your feeding schedule and have a great time :)
My question would be: Does your baby even take, a bottle?
My daughter would never ever, take a bottle. And I tried many and many times.
My son would take a bottle, but then in time, he preferred a bottle to breast.
Ditto "mynewnickname."
Does your parents, know when to feed her?
Meaning, on demand?
Do they know your baby's routines?
Sleep and nap routines/times?
By then, your baby might also be, on solids.
But for the 1st year of life, breastmilk or Formula is a baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition... not, solids.
Solids, is not as nutritionally dense, as breastmilk or Formula.
I was exclusively BF as and infant. At 8 months old my mom had to have surgery. Although I survived, it was very difficult on my grandmother to care for me since I had never taken a bottle before. I did not eat for 3 1/2 days.
Honestly, I think your daughter is too young for you to leave her especially because she is a BF baby.
Even if your supply goes down some, it will pick back up once you are home and nursing again. Go have fun, you deserve it!
Yes, you can do it, and while your supply may take a small hit, you won't lose it and you can build it back when you come home. If If If you do it right.
You will need to be very diligent about pumping. You need to pump every time the baby would nurse if you were home. So if baby nurses every 4 hours around the clock, you need to stop what you are doing and find a way to pump every 4 hours. (I admit, I did skip a middle of the night pump when I did this and pumped an extra time during the day to make up for it, but I was only gone 3 days, not 5 and even so, my supply took a small hit.)
If you just pump whenever you have time, and not on your baby's nursing schedule, then your supply will really suffer, and you could lose it.
My only concern would be if you would be ABLE to pump. Around 8 months, my supply didn't drop, but I stopped being able to pump. Hubby and I went out of town for a single night for our anniversary, and since no amount of pumping would lead to let down we ended up having to come back the next morning since I was engorged and miserable. If you can pump, as long as you do it frequently enough, your supply will not drop enough for baby to notice, and it will pick right back up when you get home. All of this is assuming that your daughter is used to taking a bottle, and has no problems switching between breast and bottle. If she hasn't, start her on occasional bottles now (from someone other than you) so she can get used to it. I personally couldn't leave my baby that young for that long, but everyone is different.
Your supply may decrease even if you pump. It's ok. Just keep your fluids up and once you get back to your daughter let her nurse long and often. It'll put your milk supply back up to what she needs in a few days.
Can't the trip wait until your baby is older? Would be so much easier.
No, you should be fine pumping, but you might have to do it on a more frequent schedule. When I went away without my baby, I pumped every 3-4 hours. When I was away for longer than that, I doubled up by pumping immediately upon my return and then again two hours later.
