Breastfed daycare baby... (pain in the neck) - Page 2

[texmati]

It's harder on the first day, because you are pulling milk out of the freezer. What she brought you today, is probably what she pumped yesterday.

Not saying you'll never see the bags again!

Being a pumping mama's is tough, and every bitty bit of that milk is hard to get out. Thank you for being such a supportive provider for her!

BTW, lansinoh bags are the best I've found. The medela ones are just awful, awful, awful. You may suggest using these, or even just cheapy gerber bottles. don't have to worry about leaks that way.

[rhiOrion]

I haven't even tried taking in any milk not already prepared. I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate that.

I take monday's pumped milk on tuesday, tuesday's on wednesday, etc. On friday I freeze what I pumped, and then on Monday I pull out the oldest milk from the freezer and mix that with anything I pumped over the weekend. I have a hard enough time getting enough milk during the weekdays, so I rarely get enough over the weekend. But I do try to pump some on the weekend so that my freezer stash is growing.

I'm glad to read about them leaking sometimes, I'll start thawing in a dish! Thanks!

[RhianaW14]

Some people pump right from the beginning after birth, to build a freezer stash for going back to work. Its much easier. My friend did this and by the time her dd neared her 1 yr birthday, she had to toss out 1500 oz of breastmilk. She didn't know to donate it.

[nextcommercial]

Originally Posted by texmati

You may suggest using these, or even just cheapy gerber bottles. don't have to worry about leaks that way.

I love those! That's the kind that parents have always brought me in the past. I didn't even know about the bags until yesterday.

[rhiOrion]

Originally Posted by nextcommercial

I love those! That's the kind that parents have always brought me in the past. I didn't even know about the bags until yesterday.

That's good if you're only freezing for a couple of days.

But at 15 dollars for 12, I would have spent 30 dollars already, and DD is only 3 months old.

[texmati]

i pumped and froze for months-- (perhaps I didn't have big stash?) only in bottles-- never bags. I bough 3 packs, adn was able to score about 30 on CL. I also used cheaper gerber bottes.

It was worth it, to me, after reading all those horrible reviews on bad bags.

[boobs4milk]

i had issues with lansinoh bags and wrote a letter to their customer service. basically, they told me that the type of plastic they use plus the sterilization process tends to weaken the bags and the slightest bump to a frozen bag will tear it. i just thaw in another container in the fridge.

[savithny]

I pumped and froze on maternity leave, and at first I only ever got 2oz increments. I froze them right away for freshness sake.

Once I got going, I generally kept it fresh in the fridge and they took Monday's pumping on Tuesday, Tuesday's on Weds, etc etc.

But in the beginning, pumping was SO hard and I was SO worried about wasting anything that I did things like have 2oz bags.

Later on, by the way, once I had a rhythm down, I got freezer-safe storage bottles and froze most of my milk directly in bottles, avoiding baggies altogether.

[ErikaS57]

I used the Lansinoh bags too and they're very good IF you are super-careful about not bumping them around once frozen. I freeze flat and then put them sideways in a shoebox-sized sterlite container in the freezer. Each box holds about 100oz... once full the box goes in the deep freezer. This protects the bags and I very rarely have leaks.

If I drop a frozen bag, I mark it with a sharpie then when it comes time to defrost I put it in a ziploc first, to save any leaking milk.