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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Breast Milk storage
What bags do you use to store breast milk? Any good freezer organizing tricks i should know about?
Re: Breast Milk storage
I've tried the Medela (too expensive), Lansinoh (they leak!) and decided on the Nuk. I just get them from Target.
Don't go by the oz on the side of the bag. I measure in a bottle then pour into the bag.
For organizing, write the date and the # of oz on the tab with a marker. I always stored them in 2-3 oz portions b/c she took smaller bottles at first.
Once it's frozen and defrosted it can't be refrozen. It should generally be used within 24 hours.
I lay the bags flat on their side in a freezer bag. I keep them together by date. I put the newest milk in the BACK of the freezer.
When it's time to use it, go by FIFO. First in, first out. Rotate your milk and you won't have to worry about discarding it due to age.
GL! Glad to see it's working out for you!
Awesome info! Thanks so much!!
Now that my milk is starting to even out, she is latching on much better. I had so much milk at first the poor girl would choke.
Now im just worried about her throwing up. Sometimes its not too much. Othertimes it's like projectile.
It's difficult at first b/c your boobs are sooooo full.
If she has a hard time latching, you can do something called "reverse pressure softening".
You can google it but basically you are taking your nips and GENTLY pushing some of the milk backwards into the boob THEN latching. This makes your nips stand out more and they can latch faster. Think thin shirt on a cold morning!
Also, if she's gagging/vomiting due to overactive letdown and oversupply, pumping is only going to make it worse b/c generally you're telling your body you need more milk.
Overactive letdown is like trying to drink out of a firehose instead of a straw. You can help minimize this by unlatching her when you feel your letdown coming and express into a burp cloth or a towel.
Other signs of OALD/OS=green frothy poop, gas and discomfort, and a clicking sound when she's sucking. I had to deal with this and while it's not a terrible problem to have it's temporarily uncomfortable for the baby.
I would prob have a pedi check her out if she projectile vomits. BF'd babies *generally* don't puke as much b/c they don't swallow as much air.
pretty much ditto ld- other than the lansinoh bags work fine for me so i use those.
i also will put the same week of milk into a gallon freezer bag (so little bags in a big bag) for organization purposes. it is way better for me than having a billion little bags floating around the freezer. plus, it lets me keep track of the milk that is next up for use more easily.
good luck tam! i had the drinking from a fire hose syndrome too..... it regulated after a little while in the beginning but it started again when he was sleeping longer stretches at night. watch out for it to return. i was totally drenched in milk after one unfortunate spit-up incident. ummmm so so gross.
I liked lansinoh bags. My tips are to collect over the day what you plan to freeze and divide then bag at the end of the day. I started with 2-3 oz bags as that's what he would eat but slowly increased to 6 oz bags. This makes one bag to one bottle, so that you don't need to defrost more than what you need, given you have to use it within 24 hours.
I froze lansinoh bags in a tupperware container so that they didn't stick/rip on the wire rack in the freezer. And freezing them flat saved space.
So long as she's growing, the spit up in volumes is normal. I would have to change multiple times a day in the early months.
Congrats!
Ditto all of the bags, except all bags leaked for me, no matter the type. Defrost in a ziplock and you will be fine.
Also, if you are a cow like I used to be, Home Depot carries a very affordable 5 cubic feet freezer for your basement. At my highest I had over 300 ounces. I thought I would never use it, but my pumping output totally crapped out around 9 months.
If you are having a really heavy letdown you can also feed her lying down. Get her latched and then lay back, the milk will hit the roof of her mouth and not straight back into her throat. I had to do this for 9 months or so.
I had this to store the milk in. I still have it as well as some extra Medela bottles, these organizer tops, nipples if you want them, as well as some breast pads.
I used the Lansinoh bags with no issues. My kids ate around 4 oz at a time when I started using pumped milk, so I always froze 4-6oz in a bag. I would start out with 3 and see how much she is taking
Also, kellymom.com has a ton of information about freezing and storage. GL!
DS 3.12.08
DD 7.11.09
DD 8.01.13
Thanks so much for all the advice!! I really appreciate it. I may be a 4th time mom, but this is my first try at EBF, so it's a whole new world for me.
When I do begin pumping, do I just pump after the baby eats and empty my boobs?
Also - for those that aren't my FB friends, I bought a pump, opened it, and it was USED. So shady bastard broke into it from the bottom and taped it back up. No lie there was crusted breast milk on it. Now I have to go buy another one. ugh.
Tam, that is disgusting re: breast pump.
I think I have some storage bags I obviously never used. When I was pumping, I used the little bottles they gave me in the NICU. They were the Medela disposable ones. With the storage lids. I think I may have ones of those still sealed up. Let me see what I have, I will happily give you whatever I have. Plus it gives me an excuse to see this little lady. I can't wait!
So glad it's going well!
That is horrifically rank re: crusted breast milk. I'm curious to know about when to pump as well - I had thought you would pump in lieu of feeding the baby but that was just a thought not based on any real information.