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Home › Articles › Issues for Mom › Surviving Date Night

Surviving Date Night

Help for Your Breastfed Baby and the Babysitter

By Shel Franco

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  • Mom should nurse the baby really well just before leaving so that her breasts will be comfortable, and the baby won't need to be fed right away. Then about 3 to 4 ounces for every missed feeding should be enough.
  • If possible, have the sitter not feed the baby within an hour of when Mom should be home, so that if she needs to feed for her own comfort, the baby will be obliging when she arrives home. Of course, we wouldn't want the baby hungry, so if holding the baby off isn't possible, Mom can pump when she gets home.
  • If the baby is older than 6 months, the sitter may want to feed him some solids when Mom is gone to help with keeping the baby full.

Caroline Packham of Buffalo, N.Y. has a freezer full of frozen breastmilk. At 3 months old, her son Casey is an old hat at separating from Mom, a senior-level corporate executive. But when Packham and her husband had to find a last-minute sitter one evening, she realized how much her new sitter didn't know. "I mentioned unthawing breastmilk if Casey needed more; the teen had a perplexed look on her face," Packham says. "I immediately followed up with, 'Don't use the microwave. Unthaw it under warm water.'"

Ward worried about Ashley, since the 6-month-old had never taken a bottle. "We tried a couple times when she was 3 months old. It never seemed to work."

This is not an uncommon complaint with breastfeeding moms, and Calandro has a few suggestions for the baby that is bottle-wary: The sitter can use a little dropper, a small cup or a syringe. "It is never easy," Calandro says. "That is why I usually recommend teaching a baby about bottles when they are about 4 to 6 weeks old. Just an ounce or so every day in the bottle so it is familiar and not foreign tothe baby when a not-mom tries to feed. If the sitter wants to try a bottle, be sure the nipple is warmed under the faucet, and breastmilk is on the outside so it will smell better. Turn the baby away while feeding so it will seem like a whole different thing than breastfeeding. If that doesn't work, turn the baby in so it is like breastfeeding. Try the bottle while walking around. Use your imagination!"

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