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January 2013 Moms
hohmanam
member
Two more pumping questions
hohmanam
member
Thanks for all those who offered advice surrounding the bottles for pumping that I asked on Saturday. I do have two follow-up questions.
First, many of you said that you pump into the bottles that come with the pump and then either pour into the bottle that baby prefers or pour into storage bags. How many of the pump bottles should I have? The pump information doesn't say how many bottles come with it, just that it comes with them.
Also, many of you mentioned the Lansinoh storage bags. The reviews aren't that great. (I know, sometimes you take reviews with a grain of salt). But I couldn't really see any others that had good reviews either. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
And just a naive FTM questions, if you pump and you put it in a storage bag and freeze it, do you then just take it out when you will need it and thaw it? How long does this take? Also, how long is pumped milk good for just in the fridge?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Two more pumping questions
I worked full time and used 4 bottles per day to pump into. If you use the storage bags, you could actually use one bottle and wash it between pumpings.
I only used Lansinoh storage bags... never had an issue with them.
If you freeze it, you just take it out of the freezer and run the bag under warm water to thaw it. NEVER MICROWAVE IT!! I believe if it is in a deep freezer it is good for 12 monthns... regular freezer 6 months... and fridge 24 hours (you should research this though... this is just from memory from 5 years ago!!).
I had 4 bottles and that worked great for me especially when I went back to work. I could get all 4 bottles in my mini cooler that came with my pump and the ice pack. I used the fridge at work but have a longer commute and OK gets very hot in the summer.
I only had Lansinoh bags and I thought they were great and easy to use.
Breastmilk is fine in fridge for up to 3 days (not stored in the door of fridge bc does not get as cold) and in freezer 6 months. When you thaw you just put it on the counter or in fridge to thaw or if you need it quicker you can thaw in water. I labeled all my bags with the date so I always knew milk was fresh.
ETA: I also labeled the bags with how many ounces because I would freeze them flat for space but impossible to tell how much milk until defrosted so sometimes you might need more or less---make sense?
I had four bottles when I was a SAHM for pumping, but I would have been fine with two. I will need four this time since I am working full time. I would pour from my bottles to lasinoh stores bags, just like the pp poster. This way you can measure out a specific amount for each bag, and frozen bags take up much less room than a bunch of bottles. To thaw, I too just ran them under the sink with warm water.
I used drop-in bottles (platex), and I think I could just use the lasinoh bag with that, but it's been awhile and I don't remember for sure.
Great point! This is a must!
I ended up registering for a few sets of the evenflo storage bottles they were really small maybe 4 ozish. I also had some of the plastic storage bags. I would pump into my maedela bottles and just pour them into those. I also would put all my bottles in a sealed plastic box that I made room for in my freezer to keep them from anything else in the freezer so these bottles were short enough to stack in the box nicely.
There are tons of storage guides out there that you should print up and place on your fridge to keep track of your milk such as this
https://www.ameda.com/breast-pumping/what-are-current-milk-storage-guidelines
I cant remember exactly how long it would take to thaw maybe a few hrs. If i wanted to thaw quickly I always took a coffee mug, filled halfway with water, microwaved the water for about a min or two and then placed the bottle or bag into the steaming hot water for a few mins. Its not precise but for me it was faster than other ways, safer than microwaving bottles (never do this) and better than those bottle warmer gadgets.
Married 5/2/09 To my best friend
I did not use Lansinoh bags, but will this time. I used Medela bags and had more than a couple leak issues. Let me tell you, whoever said "Don't cry over spilled milk," never walked into a kitchen to retrieve the 4 ounce bag of breastmilk they sat out on the counter a few hours ago to find it had leaked all over the place. Moral of the story - if you are sitting it out to thaw and won't notice a bag leak quickly - place it in a clean/sterilized container while it thaws to catch any milk that leaks out.
Also, I am considering this product this time around. It is a bottle warmer that is safe for breastmilk and it gets EXCELLENT reviews. It's definitely not a necessity, but I recall quite a few occasions trying to get breastmilk thawed under running water in a hurry, and this would definitely be a nice luxury for times like that:
https://www.amazon.com/Kiinde-Kozi-KK-R1-NA-Kozii/dp/B005G3QSF2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pdT1_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=CIIDXFBMI4M&coliid=I1EQPY0K4M9BNO
Can you put lansinoh bags of frozen milk in this?
Yes, you definitely can. It accepts bags - frozen or refrigerated.
ETA: Here is their product documentation that includes warming times. Looks like you can go from 4oz frozen in a bag to ready to serve in 8 minutes.
https://www.kiinde.com/pdf/Kozii Simple Start Guide.pdf
That's awesome!
Just deleted the one I had on my registry and added this one to an Amazon wish list
This is such a helpful thread. I've also changed out my registered Medella storage bags for the Lansinoh ones. I would have cried the first time one leaked =(
http://aminsarah.blogspot.com/
I used the first years milk storage bags with no complaints or issues. I *think* my medela pump in style advanced came with 6 bottles, and I also got the breastfeeding gift set which had additional bottles with it. I *think* breastmilk is good in the fridge for 7 days, but most of that information is available.
Kellymom.com was my go-to breast feeding resource. Check it out.
I was just looking at the Kozii on Amazon earlier today! At first I was skeptical about bottle warmers. (I will be a FTM so I have no experience.) But if I'm going to purchase something for that purpose, I want it to be a really good one. There's nothing worse than a piece of junk that takes up space on your kitchen counter that doesn't work the way you want it to. It's not in the chart, but do you think you can use it for frozen baby food?
Honestly, I have no first hand experience with the product yet, so I'm not sure, but I can't image why you wouldn't be able to, so long as the container fits. It warms with water that stays at a constant temperature and flow, so I would think you'd just have to experiment with the time to get it to the appropriate warmth.