[eli janine]

OK, so I'm starting back to work full time next week; DS will be 12 weeks old. I had huge problems pumping enough for DS1 while I was at work and had no freezer stash, so this time I really tried to sneak a pump here and there in between my little guy's almost constant nursing! I have about 100 oz now, so that feels like a nice little cushion just in case I'm not able to pump enough. I only get two pumping times in my nine hour day, and then usually with my first, he would nurse a lot more in the evening/at night/on weekends, so my supply was fine, except just had a hard time letting down for the pump.

Anyway, here's my real question. So some of the milk is getting close to the three month mark, and I'd like to use the older milk first and freeze the current pumping. But then I was thinking about how the composition of breastmilk changes with the age of your baby to best meet his needs at the moment, and I got concerned, since he'll be getting so much of his daily milk from the freezer. Should I give half older frozen and half from the previous day, or is this not that big of an issue? I appreciate your knowledge and thoughts on this.

 

[CathMac]

I would err on the side of using the older frozen milk and freezing the fresh milk accordingly.

~Cath

 

[ktbug]

Here's how we roll in the food service industry: FIFO. First in, first out. Oldest products get used first. Everything that goes into storage is labeled and dated, and the oldest product is rotated every night into the front so that it gets grabbed and used first. If it's good enough for pork chops, it should be good enough for breastmilk!

ETA: I wouldn't think the composition would make such a big difference if you're not exclusively feeding pumped milk. During nursing sessions your babe will still get the "real-time" composition.

 

[chlaal]

I think it will be fine. There's not THAT big a difference between a newborn and a 12-week-old, and anyway as the pp said, the frozen milk will be just a small percentage of his total intake for any given day.

to you, going back to work is so hard!

-Joan

 

[ecoteat]

I've been wondering that too, so I just make sure some of the milk dd drinks while I'm at work is fresh and some is frozen.