Storing and feeding pumped breastmilk

[marinak1977]

I have another newbie question . I've just started to pump my milk to extend my supply and to prepare for daycare (not for a few months, but I'd like to be ready) Thankfully my little hand lansinoh pump, is very comfortable and I'm getting the milk out. However I'm not sure how much I should pump into a bottle before freezing one. I have 5oz storage bottles and bags.
I'd like to start introducing the bottle sometime in the next few weeks so that the LO is used to it and DH gets a chance to participate in feeding (if it doesn't cause any trouble with breastfeeding). However, I have no idea how much a 1+ month old would need in a feeding (we feed on demand about every 2 hours). So, I'm unsure how much I'd need to defrost at once.
Any advice is very much appreciated, thank you!

[rivkah]

DD is 7 months and she has never taken more than 3 ounces at a time.

[texmati]

I think the recomendation is to freeze in 1 and 2 ounce portions. Other than that, I'm having the same issue with my little 4 month old.

Bottle feeding is so complicated! I don't know how much he should be getting at all.

[CherryBombMama]

when my LO was 1-3 months he drank 2-4oz BM ... 1 and 2 ounce portions are ok to freeze in the beginning, but it sucks when your LO wants more milk, so you have to get up, go to the freezer, thaw more, put it in the bottle, etc, etc ... all the while with a crying, hungry baby

i always found that 4oz was best to freeze at that age. now that my ds is 9 1/2 months, we freeze 7oz! he drinks every last drop

[marinak1977]

Thanks for your advice everyone! I have 4 Oz in the bottle now, I can freeze it and start working on the next one. I'm figuring that when I defrost it, we can use it over a couple of feedings within a day or 2. My LO is a good eater, but the bottle stuff will be all new to us.

[MsVyky]

I usually store in 2 oz bags and 4 oz bags. i'm only gone for 4 hours, so DD usually gets the 4 oz first, and a couple hours later if she wants it, she might have a 2oz-er.

It works well, because I can usually only pump about 2 oz at a time

[texmati]

It's a little complicated, because breastmilk has some funny rules about when it goes bad.

From my understanding:

*BM can stay in the fridge for up to 8 days.
*BM can stay in teh fridge for only 24 hours once frozen and defrosted.
*Once a bottle has been eaten from, it can be refridgerated and offered again at the next feeding, but after that it must be discarded-- (because of baby backwash).

If it helps at all, things got a lot simpler once I went back to work. Here's how we do it:

All the milk I pump on monday (say, 7 ounces), goes into the fridge-- not the freezer-- for DS to have on tuesday. The bottles that I store and give milk in, are not the same as the bottles he eats from, so the sitter just pours two ounces in a bottle and feeds him. If he looks like he wants more, she can pour some more out of the milk in the fridge. If there is any leftover on tuesday night (say 2 ounces) that goes straight in the freezer.

The same process happens on Wenesday, and if there is any milk leftover at night, I pour it into the same bottle in the freezer as tuesday's mik. It normally takes me a few days of surplus to make a 4 ounce bottle in the freezer.

If, for some reason, I feel I'm going to be short milk, I defrost a few ounces the night before and leave instructions to use that bottle first, knowing that I'll be able to freeze any surplus of the fresh milk, but I'll have to toss the frozen milk at the end of the day.

All of Friday's milk goes into the freezer, and once I have a good sized stash, all of monday's milk will be thawed frozen milk (to keep rotating the stash). Right now I pump on the weekend to make bottles for monday.

It sounds like a PITA, but it's not. And it doesn't really answer your question, but I sure wish that someone had told me this a few weeks ago-- much less stress!

[LindsC]

I have always stored milk in 2-4oz servings. Typically DD takes 4-5oz at a feeding now (7 months old tomorrow). I basically just send everything that I pump the day before to daycare for the following day and what I pump on Friday gets sent on Monday. I do need to start rotating my freezer stock though since some of it has been in there for awhile.

[Anna Phor]

We're still in "practice" mode with the bottle--I'm not back at work, so we do a bottle once or twice a week just so he can get used to it. We generally give about an ounce then he tops up from the breast.

[hotharmony]

I would recommend stopping by Kellymom.com to check out the milk calculator which will show you how much milk to put into the bottles.

Also they have a great link for storing breastmilk.

The thing to keep in mind is breastfeed babies need a lot less than formula feed babies because the breastmilk is specifically created for their nutritional needs.

You might also want to check out how to bottle feed the breastfeed baby. When I went back to work I printed one of these out for each of DS's caregivers and talked to them about not overfeeding.

[marinak1977]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I've got my head wrapped around this now, so I should be set now. Really love my little manual pump!