storing pumped milk in glass

jesstellina

I remember seeing a post in somebody's blog about how she stored her breastmilk in 4-oz Mason jars. She was a fairly regular poster here and on AP. I can't remember her screen name, but IIRC, she had a little girl named Nicole who was a couple months younger than DD. I haven't seen her around in a while.

Anyway, does anybody store their milk in glass? I'd like to get away from using the bags. When DD was little, I'd pump into either the 5-oz Medela bottles or Lansinoh bags, and DH would heat them in the bottle warmer. I ended up with a pretty big stash (donated >500 oz when DD was 1 and decided she wouldn't drink milk from anything but the breast), so I may end up doing a mix of glass and bags. But I wanted to hear about logistics from somebody who's actually done it. Would the jars fit in a bottle warmer? Do you have to do anything special to keep the glass from breaking at any point during the freezing & thawing process? I'm reading mixed opinions online.

Into+the+Kitty

I ended up not pumping, so can't help you there, but I think you might be referencing @theresat858

jesstellina

That is who I was thinking of, and I'm pretty sure she was the one who mentioned it. Thanks!

MAdams728

I am not the poster you are referring to, but I stored my milk in glass. I hate plastic and try to avoid it. I bought glass Dr. Brown's bottles, and my Medela PISA attached to them so I could pump straight into them. I only had a couple of days pumped at a time, so I never froze milk. I dont know if you could freeze in glass mason jars. I know glass will break under extreme temps. My glass bottles were fine in the bottle warmer straight from the fridge.

unaveragejane

I bought some freezer-safe glass Mason jars at Walmart in anticipation of pumping a freezer supply. (Dang faulty boobs!) Anyway, the jars I found were very small...4 oz sounds about right. I doubt they would fit in a warmer b/c of the width, and even if they weren't too wide, how would you fish them out? I figured the milk would have to thaw and then be poured into a bottle anyway. Or you could heat water in a bowl and warm the milk that way before pouring it into a bottle.

YellowLily2013

All glass is not created equally. Borosilicate glass is made to handle extreme temperate changes. Like freezing up warming up. This is the type of glass Pyrex is and life factory bottles are made of. It would be expensive to made a whole freezer stash this way though.

JJC925

https://www.amazon.com/Sensible-Lines-Milk-Tray/dp/B001QGIPS6/ref=sr_1_3?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1389926835&sr=1-3&keywords=breastmilk+tray I don't know if you're super anti plastic, but I used these. They are BPA free and I loooove that they're 1 oz sticks so I could defrost only as much as he needed. You can put they directly into the bottle to defrost. I found it helpful for storage too because I could put a bunch in a large ziplock bag instead of all the little bags taking up space and not stacking very well. Plus, you just wash and reuse instead of throwing away all those bags!

Danielle2482

I use 4 oz glass mason jars that I got at walmart.  I've been doing it for 6 weeks now and haven't had any problems yet.  I actually haven't put them in a bottle warmer.  I usually defrost them in the fridge and then pour into a bottle.  I have taken it right from the freezer to a bowl of warm water once when I needed to thaw it just enough to separate from the jar and put into a bottle for someone to use later.

YellowLily2013

Fwiw, I too wanted to do glass storage but ultimately I couldn't justify the cost. If you will be a canner of jelly want want to do the mason jars, that could be some justification!

But with 500+ oz in my freezer that'd be 125 jars!!

YellowLily2013

Carnation77

I tried it but the fat sticks too much to the sides and I can't get it off without really shaking it (which you're not supposed to do with BM).  So I use plastic for storage now.

unaveragejane

Wait, why aren't you supposed to shake BM? I've never heard that.

YellowLily2013

unaveragejane said:

Wait, why aren't you supposed to shake BM? I've never heard that.

Swirl don't shake. Apparently it can break up the proteins.

I actually think the fat does better in my glass bottles vs plastic ones.

If I could do it again I'd do the mason jars! Sounds cool!

vbdigger14

I pump directly into glass Dr. Brown's and glass Evenflo(super cheap) bottles and store in the fridge. The Evenflo seem to screw onto my Medela pumps slightly better. For freezer storage, I pour the milk into ice cube trays and then once frozen I transfer the cubes to a mason jar in the freezer. I just label the mason jars by the month. Since one cube is about an ounce,  to make a bottle I just throw a few cubes into a glass bottle (I'm using the Avent Natural glass bottle s for actual feeding since my lo has a nipple brand preference) and thaw by running under warm water until liquid again. Sometimes this all seems more complicated,  but I'm in a rhythm now so it works.