Cincinnati Babies

Pumpy McPumpersons

I keep going back and forth on the easiest, most efficient way to store/ration/provide pumped milk.  Since I have a bit of a freezer stash, I figure that it might be best to thaw out the oldest bags, use those to get W through the day, then replace what was eaten (by freezing) the freshly pumped milk from that day.  However, now I'm reading that some of the nutrients are lost during the freezing process.  So...share your routine with me.  Do you freeze, each day, always providing thawed, previously frozen BM, or do you merely work from a refrigerated state, only using frozen BM if necessary to supplement the refrigerated milk?

Re: Pumpy McPumpersons

  • I only use frozen if I'm short on fresh, or if the frozen is about to go past date.
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  • I always used fresh as much as possible. I stored each day in the fridge and then froze whatever was left over at the end.
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  • I was a freak and had all my frozen milk organized by month in shoe boxes in my deep freeze.  I would use the fresh milk first and then supplement with frozen milk.  My system helped me figure out what milk needed to be used first.  Plus the cardboard insulated the milk and saved my arse when we lost power to the freezer 2x within the year I was BFing.  Any milk not in the boxes thawed and I had to pitch it.  So I highly recommend keeping the frozen milk in a shoebox!

    I also had a few ounces of frozen milk in my mom's freezer (my sitter) so she could use it if she needed extra milk one day.  

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  • Perfect.  You ladies are the S-M-R-Test!
  • I always found it easiest to keep track of the milk and what needed to be used first by using frozen milk each day and then pumping and freezing every day.  But I also only work part time, so he was only getting the frozen milk a few times a week....I'm not sure if I would have done it differently if I was working every day or not.
  • I was too lazy to thaw the milk out to make the bottles the night before (daycare required you to have the bottles ready).  So I used fresh and supplemented when I needed.
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  • imageMiller238:
    I was too lazy to thaw the milk out to make the bottles the night before (daycare required you to have the bottles ready).  So I used fresh and supplemented when I needed.

    Lazy a$$

  • Since I'm a SAHM it was easier since I was with him all day but I used whatever was fresh so I didnt have to thaw or warm up any milk for each feeding. I had such a big oversupply though that each day I was still freezing at least 1/2 day's worth of feedings if not more. You should have seen our freezer-- it was 75% frozen breast milk, 25% frozen beef (we buy 1/4 cow each year) and 1 frozen bottle of Jager Cool haha
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  • I was working FT when I had Justin, so I pumped daily and used exactly the method you described above.  I figured he always got "fresh" milk when he was with me and nursing, so the 2 or 3 bottles of frozen that he got at daycare would do him no harm.  If so many nutrients are lost in the freezing process, then what exactly would be the point in freezing it?  As long as it is used before the expiration date, I see no reason not to use the frozen milk, because as I said it's only 2-3 bottles per day at most.  You are nursing at home, I assume, so he's getting a fair amount of the real stuff anywho.

    And FWIW, Justin is so full of life and energy, I give every ounce of credit (pun intended) to the frozen BM he ingested during his first year of life.

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  • I would freeze everything I pumped each day and would send frozen to the sitter.  She would just thaw whatever she needed.
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  • I send yesterday's fresh milk to the sitter, and she's got a small freezer stash in case of emergencies. I almost always send 3 fresh bottles, and depending on how late I'm at work, Nora sometimes has a 4th bottle before I get there, so the freezer stash does get used. 

    On Fridays I usually freeze any extra, because I pump 1x/day on the weekends, too. 

  • We use recently pumped fridge milk first and then crack into the deep freeze if we need more. Since my stash will start expiring soon, we'll start using some of that and freezing what I bring home.
  • When my supply was at it's highest, we used only fresh milk from the refrigerator the few days a week I worked. I would freeze any extras from the day.

    As my supply started to dwindle around October we started supplementing with the frozen milk. It worked out until December when my supply was nearly non-existent. Then we started rotating through what was left of my stash to get him to a year.

    DS #1 born January 2010. DS #2 due June 2014.

  • When I am gone to work I thaw out frozen milk since I have so much and we use that, and then what I pumped that day I put in the freezer.  Some days when I am home and I need to pump early in the morning, I will pump and save that in a bottle for her so she gets fresh milk.
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