Would you buy bottles?

[no5no5]

With DD, I had to go back to work pretty much right away, so of course we had bottles ready before she was born.  With this baby, I don't plan to work outside the home, and we don't have nearby relatives we'd leave the baby with.  So I don't see any need for bottles. 

DH, on the other hand, thinks we need to buy a whole new set (we got rid of our old ones years ago).  He also mentioned getting a bigger freezer, so I guess he's imagining that I'll be pumping and freezing like I did last time.  That's not how I picture this working.

Am I missing something, or does this just seem like a waste of time & energy & money? I mean, I'd love to donate extra milk, but I'd rather have my supply in check so that I don't have extra milk to donate.  (That was not a realistic possibility with DD, as she never really took a bottle and made up for it by nursing more at night.  So during the day I pumped to relieve pressure and ended up with a ton of extra milk.) 

[Marissamom]

I would have *a* bottle on hand and plan on having a couple bottles worth of milk in the freezer, just in case of emergency. but no need to buy a whole set of bottles or have a big stash. 

[PatioGardener]

I own one bottle - it fits on my Avent Isis pump - but I own no artificial nipples.  My DS has never had a bottle, and when I head back to work at 12 months, he'll get my milk in a cup when we are apart.  (I pump on occasion to deal with a nursing strike, to mix with medicine, or to make 'momsicles' )

You can always pick up a bottle if you need one - I wouldn't waste the money getting any ahead of time.

[Daffodil]

Originally Posted by Marissamom 

I would have *a* bottle on hand and plan on having a couple bottles worth of milk in the freezer, just in case of emergency. but no need to buy a whole set of bottles or have a big stash. 

Yep, that sounds reasonable to me.  It's easy enough to pick up bottles after the baby's born if you decide you need them, so there's probably no need to make sure you have a supply on hand ahead of time.  But they can be helpful even if you're home all the time. I don't know how I would have survived DD's early babyhood without having a pump and some bottles, because she nursed so frequently and for so long at a time that the only way I could count on spending more than 45 minutes away from her was if DP was able to give her a bottle.  Thank god for those nights when I was able to go to bed and get a couple extra hours of sleep while DP stayed up with her and gave her a bottle or two.  But using bottles isn't always so important.  My second baby was able to go a lot longer in between nursing sessions, so I could usually be away from him without him needing a bottle. (Good thing, too, because we had almost no success getting him to take a bottle.)

[averlee]

I never used bottles at all with my daughter. Nursing on demand straight from the breast was the system that worked for us! (Mostly because I hate washing bottles!)

[fruitfulmomma]

None of my 5 children have ever had a bottle and I've never had them in the house. I just got a pump a few months ago and have only used it a couple of times to try it out.

If you want something for emergency you could get a manual pump and stow a few bags in the freezer. It can be spoon fed with no need for bottles.

[no5no5]

That's really good advice.  Thank you.  I would like to have an emergency supply, just in case (especially since I recently learned that my mom had to give me formula for a week or so when she had a medical emergency).  But I suppose a week's worth of breastmilk would be plenty. 

So how would you ladies recommend storing it, if not in bottles?  I have an electric pump but I'd need to buy new tubing to use it, and honestly I was almost as efficient expressing by hand back in the day.  So I figure I'll need some sort of airtight storage system, preferably something that can be reused for another purpose later on.  Maybe a covered icecube tray? 

[Marissamom]

I use Lansinoh milk storage bags, basically pre-sterilized ziploc baggies. they take up the least amount of freezer space.

[luv-my-boys]

I agree with the other posters.  I am a sahm and i still bought a set of bottles *in case* and I ended up needing them within the first week as Dd had some medical issues within the first week.  Plus I do want to be able at some time to give her a bottle when I leave her with DH when doing errands/shopping.  I've heard tht lanisoh have thicker bags (compared to medela) and have started an emergency stash as well.  I also had a friend who became very sick and was hospitalized and her meds were not bf compatible and sadly she used formula to get her thru that.  I want to have a stash in place in case an emergency arises I could feed her bf instead of formula.

[Momsteader]

I liked the Lansinoh as well. They are zipper topped and so you know they're closed. If you lie them flat to freeze, they are easy to stack and don't take up as much room that way.  If you have a pump, you could simply purchase a nipple/ring that is compatible with your pump bottle(s) and use that if there was an emergency.

[laurabfig]

I agree the Lansinoh bags are the BEST for storing breastmilk in the freezer.  I never liked the medela ones that came with my pump.

[JudiAU]

I wouldn't worry about it in advance. Plenty of time after the baby is born and nursing is well established. I will say that if you are using a medela pump the new redesigned nipple is much better and it makes it easier to pump/feed from the same bottle.

[crystal_buffaloe]

I agree with the PP -- just buy a nipple for the bottle that fits on your pump. If you need more later, you can buy them later.

I store in the Lasinoh bags. I lie them flat to freeze and then I stack them up in a gallon ziplock bag. I like having them double-bagged.

I think an ice cube tray is not the best idea because the cubes are too big to fit through the mouth of the bottle, so wouldn't you have to transfer them to something else, let them thaw, and then pour it in the bottle? If you've frozen them flat, the Lasinoh bags thaw super quickly (like, less than 5 min) in warm water and then they have a pouring spout that you can pour straight into the bottle.

[no5no5]

Thanks for all the advice, ladies.  Just to be clear, I still have my old pump but I do not plan to use it or to buy the tubing that I'd need to use it, and I no longer have any of the bottles that came with it.  So at this point I'm really looking for something that would be easy for hand-expressing (though I could express into a cup and pour into something else for freezing), and preferably something both cheap and reusable for another purpose.  I doubt that this milk will ever be used (it really will be for emergencies only), so I'm not super concerned about the convenience factor. 

[StephandOwen]

If you are just going to express a little to have on hand in case of emergency, I wouldn't worry about buying a bottle or anything (unless you live hours away from the nearest store/gas station). Otherwise, if an emergency hits and a bottle is needed then someone can always run out and buy one quickly.

With my ds, I never bought any bottles. He was nursed on demand and his bio-dad was not in the picture so I did everything 100% on my own. Around 8 months, when his bio-dad took me to court and was granted (short- 1 hour at the beginning) visits I introduced a sippy cup to ds.

If dh and I have another baby then I will be buying a couple bottles. DH fully supports breastfeeding but also wants to help with the feeding. I will not be working out of the home while a baby is young (probably won't go back until around 1 year old or only working very part time before that) so I will breastfeed for the most part. I will also pump some so that dh can feed the baby a bottle. I have absolutely no problem with this since I did it all alone for the first child I have no problem letting someone else help next time. LOL! The only thing I will need to be careful of is not letting it get to the slippery slope of everyone wanting to feed the baby bottles so the baby starts rejecting the breast (or the milk starts to decrease). I know that MIL will bug the crap out of me to feed bottles to the baby so dh and I will just need to stand strong and tell her NO.

[crystal_buffaloe]

Okay, I didn't catch this:

Originally Posted by no5no5 

Thanks for all the advice, ladies.  Just to be clear, I still have my old pump but I do not plan to use it or to buy the tubing that I'd need to use it, and I no longer have any of the bottles that came with it.  So at this point I'm really looking for something that would be easy for hand-expressing (though I could express into a cup and pour into something else for freezing), and preferably something both cheap and reusable for another purpose.  I doubt that this milk will ever be used (it really will be for emergencies only), so I'm not super concerned about the convenience factor. 

So no, you probably wouldn't need a pack of 50 Lasinoh bags . Here's an idea: could you express into a sterilized glass jar and then just freeze that (like, a baby food jar or a jelly jar -- something you already have that you could sterilize)? For subsequent sessions, you could express into a clean glass bowl (wider, to catch the spray) and then cool it in the fridge and pour on top of the frozen. Just remember to leave room at the top for expansion.

If you don't use the milk, you might consider donation.

[JudiAU]

I'd encourage you to store the milk in lansinoh bags rather than random glass jars of whatever. You can donate the extra bags if you need to. If you have it stored properly or at least in the regular fashion you have a better chance of donating it if you don't use it. And since you don't particularly want to use it, why not have it in a condition that makes it available to another child?