Supplying milk for sister's newborn...help? ideas?

[HoneyTree]

Hey, mamas.

So here's my situation. My sister had breast cancer and a double mastectomy two years ago. She's now--amazingly, blessedly--pregnant, due at the end of April. I offered to supply her with breastmilk, or to try, at least, and I'm wondering if you could share your thoughts.

First, she's 450 miles away, but we have a ride for the milk every two weeks. Would dry ice keep it fresh enough for her to deep freeze once it got there?

Second, my baby will be a year and three months at the time. Will she need to supplement my older-baby-forumulated milk with newborn formula?

Third, how soon should I begin to prepare my body for this, and how would I go about doing that?

That's all I can think of right now, but would welcome any other thoughts or suggestions!

[mysticmomma]

lots of info on the yahoo group milkshar

[jillmamma]

No advice, but wanted to say I think you are doing a wonderful thing for your future niece or nephew! How generous of you!

[PatioGardener]

How sweet of you!

As far as feeding a newborn 'toddler' milk, as long as baby is not premature I can't imagine why you'd need to add formula. Breastmilk will have all the nutrition baby needs, and toddler breastmilk is much closer in composition to baby breastmilk than formula is.

[phrogger]

The milk should be fine with dry ice. I have shipped overnight with dry ice with no problems.

I would start pumping now and start building a stash. In a deep freezer it will be good for 1 year. You can start sending it to her with the ride when you get a cooler full of milk. I would start by pumping after your own baby is done nursing. Label everything and make sure you date it so she uses the oldest first.

I don't see why she would have to supplement at all. Older BM is still better then formula. However, if you started doing a little now, it would be yonger baby milk anyway.

If you are struggling with making milk, she could also look into milk donation, but it sounds like maybe if you start sooner and stock up, it shouldn't be a problem.

GOOD LUCK, it is an amazing thing you are doing for her.

[BakerALM]

After exclusively pumping for 22mths for my first daughter and knowing how amazingly hard it was for me I would start as soon as possible. It will take time for your you and body to get use to pumping and for your milk supply to increase to meet this new higher demand. I would make my goal to be at least 15oz/day on average. A baby a few months old takes about 15-25oz/day and an older baby 25-35oz. It is really not possible to tell where the babies appetite will fall in that range (their are more detailed charts that will give you these averages month by month but it really just depends upon the baby). I would say if you pumped for a year at 15oz/day you would be able to supply about 7mths of exclusive breastmilk.

This is a very hard road so take it one day at a time, you will be now feeding 2 babies and your body will need to adjust to the demand. The earlier you start the better chance you have of increasing your supply to this higher demand. I found that the hardest thing is increasing supply and maintaining is a bit easier since you will just have to find a routine.

I think this the most AMAZING gift you can give to your sister and new niece or nephew.

[LittleBlessings]

That is a nice gift you can give

[foreverinbluejeans]

How wonderful!

It would be great if she could find some local mothers so she could have fresh milk for the first 4-6 weeks. Of course your milk is much better than formula but milk composition is different for different age babies.

You can pump one breast while your baby nurses on the other. You should be able to get the most milk first thing in the morning (like cows).

[HoneyTree]

Thanks so much, mamas! I really appreciate the suggestions and encouragement. Off to check out the yahoo group...

[Red Pajama]

I did this for my sister, but she lives locally to me, so no advice on the shipping.

I'd start pumping now. There was only 5 months between my sister and my baby, and re-establishing a supply was the most difficult part.

[hotharmony]

Here is a great article on shipping the milk, http://www.mother-2-mother.com/bfand...g.htm#shipping.

This is a great thing your doing for your sister!

[mambera]

Originally Posted by foreverinbluejeans

It would be great if she could find some local mothers so she could have fresh milk for the first 4-6 weeks.

Ditto on this. You are a superstar for doing this and I agree that any-age BM is much better than formula nutritionally.

But frozen (and even refrigerated) BM loses a lot of the immunological benefits. Live white blood cells probably wouldn't last more than maybe an hour or so? in the refrigerator, and freezing definitely kills them. Antibodies are OK in the fridge and can survive a snap-freeze and thaw but probably not the regular slow freezing in your kitchen freezer.

So frozen, shipped BM is a great nutritional benefit but probably less of an immunological benefit. I'd advise your sis to check milkshare for some fresh local milk if possible. Good luck!