Large freezer stash and donating

nursebride2be

I have a LARGE freezer (close to 700oz I think)  that is starting to take over our stand up freezer in the garage. DS will be 4 months next week and my supply seems to be holding steady, I am able to make 10- 15 oz more a day then what DS takes in when at daycare. I am trying to cut back on the extra pumping some but don't want to hurt by overall supply Now for my questions-

I am thinking about donating some of my extra milk. Would probably do something like Human Milk for Human babies via facebook. 

- If the baby receiving my milk were to get sick or something could I be held accountable? Not that I think my milk is bad, but it is just a worse care scenario thought

- I had mastitis twice in the first couple of months. Is it ok to donate that milk? I marked the bags of when I was on antibiotics and would probably not donate those bags. If I don't donate the bags when I had mastitis how far before my symptoms showed up and how long after antibiotics should I not donate?

 

I am starting to rate the bags into what is given at daycare, but of course then I just have more milk to be frozen that day. If I don't donate, would I be able to stop breastfeeding earlier and then just give frozen stuff? Will it matter if it is from 6 months earlier in terms of nutrients for DS?

One of my biggest fears is that I am going to donate all this milk then something will happen and I won't have all that milk to give my own baby. TIA for any advice.

Eta: fixing spelling

rheavner

I'm following... I'm in the same situation. My freezer is full. I just transferred 150oz. To the deep freeze today. I want to cut out my lunchtime session but I'm afraid if a supply drop. I have also thought I would wean early then fed freezer stash. So I'm following to see what advice you get. Just know you are not alone.

ns1

I donated through a milk bank, so not quite what you're looking into...but anyway...

We only had our freezer attached to our fridge, so when it got about 600 oz. in it it was stuffed!  LO was still little and I worried about donating and not having enough for LO, but I figured we were going well now and we'd deal with whatever happened later later.  My supply kept up with DD until we weaned at around 14 months (although at about 9ish months I did use some of my supply from a little dip in supply possibly AF related), so, no issues there.

I found a milk bank through LLL's website.  They did have a screening process and guidelines.  With this there weren't issues with liability (that I know of!) and they were pretty clear about what they would/wouldn't take.    

Mrs_D_in_KY

If it were me I would start sending the frozen milk to daycare and just keep rotating through and freezing fresh milk. My supply was pretty strong and we had about 1,000 oz in our deep freezer.

Well at 9 months AF showed up and my supply slowly started to dip each month until I weaned from the pump at 13 months. The freezer stash was nice because by that point I knew I would make it to a year with the frozen milk. But it's whatever you feel is best!

singingirl96

I would start freezing what you pump and start using the older frozen milk to send to daycare.  That way you'll star rotating your stash.  If you have that much milk, you should consider donating some of it.  You don't need to hoard quite that much frozen milk.  There are many sick babies that could really benefit from your breast milk.

tcu_2003

I've donated through Eats on Feets and Human Milk 4 Human Babies with no issues.  You can either post that you have milk to offer, and state what you want the recipient to know about you (i.e. when I did it, I stated I didn't smoke, drink, or take medicine except for the mini pill, and that I was an occasional caffeine drinker - I basically looked on my local site to see what types of info others gave); or, you can respond to a request for milk (this is how my sister has donated - she's dairy free, so wanted to give her milk to someone who needed dairy free milk).

 

My stash was never as large as yours (I maybe had 1-2 extra ounces per day, but it all added up), so I didn't donate any until DS was about 14 months.  At that point, he was done with milk in bottles and refusing it in any form except still nursing and we mixed some with cereal each morning.  I still didn't donate everything - I just donated a second time last week when DS was nearly 19 months, and will probably donate once more to clear out the rest of my freezer stash.

If you're worried about supply later, then donate in chunks.  You can just do 100-200 oz, or less or more - whatever you're comfortable getting rid of now.