Talk to me about pumping & storing milk

[PotreroHill]

I'm going back to work in April for about 6 weeks (I'm a teacher). My son will be 6 weeks old then. I'm going to start pumping soon so I have some milk stockpiled. I have an Ameda Purely Yours pump, 6 glass evenflo bottles, some breastmilk storage bags, and an ice pack thingy to keep the milk cold during transport.

The thing is I don't really know how to store milk. Whats the best way? Do I pump into a bottle, pour it into a storage bag, and put it in the freezer? Is it best to keep the milk that I pump now in the freezer, just in case, and feed my son fresh milk pumped the day before? I just feel so clueless about this.

Tips and advice appreciated, thanks mamas

[jamiescottie]

congrats on your new little one! i went back to work this past october and it took me a little bit to get my routine down. I pumped a bunch when i was on maternity leave, but that milk is all still in my freezer (probably too old now). The few times we tried to defrost and heat the previously frozen milk up again, my son wouldn't drink it, it was just different than the fresh stuff -but we were already having a lot of problems with him rejecting the bottle. hopefully you don't have that problem. We are very lucky, our daycare provider is wonderful and extremely patient. she has just our son and her own 3 year old so she was able to give our son a lot of one on one time while he learned to drink from the bottle.

I go to work pretty early, so every morning we nurse when we are starting to wake up around 4 or 5am (we bed share). then i nurse him again right before we leave at about 6:15. i drop him off at my daycare provider at 7, she is about 5 min from my work so I bring him there in the morning with 2 bags of milk, each with about 4-6 oz each. She uses one at around 8 and the other around 11 (he usually only takes about 1oz avg at 8 and 3oz at 11 from a bottle...we never know). Meanwhile, I pump at work at about 9:30 or 10 am. And yes, like you said, I pump directly into bottles (i have a double electric pump) and then dump both bottles into one bag and label it. Then I put it into the fridge.

I go over to nurse him at lunch around noon and leave her with the milk that I just pumped a couple hours before. She uses that or what is left over from earlier for his 2~3pm bottle. I also am pumping at work at this time too. I always just make sure she has enough to last until I get there again with more. Sometimes I have to squeeze in an extra pumping at 5 in the morning, but most of the time, i am able to stick to the routine i have set up.

By the way-I recommend the Lansinoh storage bags, they are cheaper than the medela (by 50%!) and they work great. i think it is $10 for 50 bags where the medela are $20 for 50. Also, i recommend the Adiri natural nurser bottle. it resembles the breast most out of the ones that we tried. Best of luck to you! You will get the hang of it and then you will work out your own routine!

jamie

[groovyem]

Well, I'm an EPer and this is what I do. I pump into plastic bottles (you can buy really inexpensive BPA free ones for fridge storage), and then freeze in lansinoh bags, I wouldn't put milk into bag until freezing. Some people complain about those bags leaking, currently I am using up my older frozen stash (my little girl is 7mo), and I have had a few leak, but I think thats inevitable. Initially I would give her my fresh pumped and freeze the leftovers. Now, every evening before bed (thawed milk needs to be used within 24hrs due to nutritional value) I thaw some, mix it with fresh and make up my bottles for the next day. Milk is good in a standard freezer 3 to 4mo and a deep freezer 6-12mo. Freezing the bags flat saves room, but I put my bags in smaller plastic containers (like yogurt containers) in the freezer and I like how I can drop a single bag into a coffee mug of really, really warm tap water to thaw, also nice this way if bag leaks. Milk is good in fridge for up to 7 or 8 days, but I freeze every 2 to 3 days. Tip.. you don't have to wash your pumping supplies at work, just keep them in the fridge in between uses, the milk on them won't go bad, HUGE time saver. Sorry to ramble, good luck!

[texmati]

This is a post I made, when I was at the height of my ocd-ness about breast milk storage

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 the fridge for only 24 hours once frozen and defrosted.
*Once a bottle has been eaten from, it can be refrigerated 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 milk. 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.

The only thing that we different now, is that we feed and store in the same bottles. bottles and nipples that are marked 'standard' will work with the medela and APY pump. i've also made a conscious decision to not rotate my freezer stash-- so friday's milk get's marked for donation to the hospital. I pump on sundays to get fresh milk for monday.

[LindsC]

I started pumping a few weeks before I went back to work and put all of that into storage bags in our chest freezer. Once I went back to work, I sent whatever I pumped during the day to daycare the following day except for Friday. Whatever I pumped on Friday went into the freezer and I thawed milk from the freezer for Tuesday's feedings (I only work Tuesday-Friday). I pump into the bottles that came with my pump and freeze in the Lansinoh storage bags. I have had a few bags leak lately, but other than that, I haven't had any problems with them.

[cheryllynn]

Hi -

I pumped into bottles. Depending on the plan for the bottles:
I kept at least 2 bottles in the fridge just in case they were needed. If I got more than 4 bottles, I started pouring the older bottles into freezer bags and froze them flat. When I started getting more than our freezer compartment held, we bought a used 5 cu ft deep freeze. I put 8 lanisoh bags into a freezer bag and then into a 2nd freezer bag. Those went into the deep freeze.

I marked each freezer bag with the date, amount and # of days in the refridgerator. I was never comfortable with leaving a bottle in the fridge for longer than 4 days although the standard is 8 or 10 days. I knew my milk was headed towards the freezer and prefered to freeze it close to the date it was pumped.

Keep in mind that freezing does destroy something in the milk, either enzymes or antibodies or something, so fresh milk is always better than frozen, although frozen milk is still very good.

Frozen milk, when thawed, does smell and taste different. DD has no problems drinking the thawed milk, but it's a surprise to us if we don't know that the change is there.

I liked creating a stockpile for possible health or other reasons. I was able to use my stash when I needed to take a medicine not recommended for bf-ing. I used the freezer stash and kept my supply up by pumping & dumping. Then later, when my milk supply started crashing, I was able to continue offering my frozen milk instead of switching to formula.

[texmati]

I'd also look up 'lipase'. I wouldn't worry about it too much, but it's nice to know that milk that taste's off is still good to give to baby.