I have read that glass containers are best for freezing breastmilk, second best is a plastic container and then the storage bags. Bottles made for breastmilk storage are expensive (I registered for and received 2 packages of the Ameda storage bottles they were like $14 for a pack of 4). I bought some mason jars and a funnel (because mason jars are hard to pour out of) and plan to put a sticker on top of the mason jar with the date and freeze my milk that way. My mom freezes chicken broth and other liquids in mason jars.
Think this will work?
Re: Breastmilk storage - mason jars?
Hm, this is a good point you make. Perhaps I can task DH with putting 1 oz marks on the jars with a sharpie? This is just the type of job he would take very seriously
yeah I would say the portioning would be hard. Thats why the bags or so nice with the measurements on them. Or freezing in ice cube trays.
You will HATE wasting BM. hate it. I once pumped like 2 oz which was huge for me...and knocked over the damn bottle. I was on the floor like a baby trying to save it. (i didn't btw)
~Started TTC 2/09. BFP #1 11/09. EDD 8/7/10. DS born 8/7/10.~
~Surprise BFP #2 5/11 while still BF'ing. Natural M/C @ 7w3d.~
~BFP #3 8/11. EDD 4/24/12. Heavy bleeding episodes from a lost twin. DD born 4/14/12.~
~Started TTC 2/13. BFP #4 3/13. EDD 11/8/13. Hoping for smooth sailing!~
I bought the small mason jars. I think they are each a pint (so 16 ounces?) Also, we have a deep freezer in the garage we plan on using for storage. I don't think we'll have tons in storage, I will pump at work and send that milk with the baby the next day to my mothers.
Perhaps I should use something smaller in the beginning when they are only eating a couple ounces?
If I am only feeding him 2 ounces, can I only thaw 2 ounces at a time? I can't thaw 6 and put the rest in the fridge?
I'm doing the ice cube tray thing and am actually kind of excited about it in some weird way lol I think it's a really great idea that will work out perfectly for portioning out breast milk and not wasting 1oz!
(After the breast milk freezes in the trays you can just pop them out and add them to a ziploc freezer bag where you can remove however many cubes you need at a time and keep adding to the collection as you make more cubes).
I don't think using mason jars is a good idea. The whole key to freezing your milk is that you want to be able to have it stored in smaller amounts such that you can only thaw out what you need - hence the plastic storage bags make sense b/c then you can easily do 2 oz at a time.
You must use all frozen milk within 24 hours of it being defrosted. Anything beyond that time frame will have to be tossed.
I'd return the jars and get the plastic bags, I believe all of the major brands are made out of "safe" plastic and you never microwave breast milk, so there isn't a concern about heating up the bags. When I pumped I just let the milk defrost in the bag in the fridge, then poured it into the bottle and stuck the bottle in a cup of hot water to bring it up to temperature quickly.
Frozen BM onlys lasts 24hrs once thawed in the refrigerator. So if you can't use that whole 6oz in 24 hours you're waste it which as others have said is heart breaking.
By 12wks I had 500oz in our freezer in 1, 3, and 4oz portions. I learned the hard way by wasting some to not freeze more then 4oz at a time. It broke up better and was way easier to portion out in the smaller amounts.
check out https://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html it's a guideline for milk storage.
Daisy - thank you for the link!
I do need to send enough for him to eat for the day when I go back to work, so I will need slightly larger amounts. I like the idea of putting cubes in the jars and then sending it to my mother's house that way.
However, I have pint glasses at home, and these jars that I bought are not that big, they are very small, so I think they might be 6 ounce jars. If my baby is eating 6 ounces during the day, these would be perfect to send to my mom's with him for the workday. Then I will use the ice cube tray/zip-loc plan for at home when I only need a couple ounces at a time!
Thank you everyone! I really appreciate all the opinions and advice...who knows how much milk I would have wasted without it!
Check out the jam jar size. They should be out now. They are only about 4 ounces. It might be good for just starting out.
And it if you thaw a jar and store it in the fridge and use it within a day or so you should be fine. I remember doing that when I would babysit my little brother. Especially if it's slow thawed in the fridge overnight. Oh and don't forget that the milk will expand a little as it freezes so don't over fill your jars
This might be helpful to
- At room temperature (less than 77?F) for 4 to 8 hours
- At the back of a refrigerator for 3 to 8 days
- At the back of a freezer for up to 3 months
https://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/women/pregnancy/birth/828.htmlHuh thats actually a great idea.
I second that! I am going to order some! Thanks!
I used the plastic bags and my freezer was full of milk. There was no way it would've fit if we'd used mason jars!
What mason jars were great for - short term refrigerator storage of homemade baby food! I made all of DD's baby food (cereal, veggies, etc.) from scratch and stored it in the jars in the fridge. Usually I'd make a batch of cereal and then drop in a frozen cube of carrot, sweet potato or whatever veggie I had on hand frozen and warm it all up and have a meal for DD. I'd send her off to daycare with breastmilk bottles and mason jars with meals. Her afternoon daycare snacks were usually yogurt or applesauce in a mason jar too. Those worked great for us when she was on purees.