Transferring milk

Meg&Austin · March 2014

I was wondering once you go back to work is it better to pump in bags to transfer to bottles the next day for daycare if you dont use medela bottles to feed the baby or pump into the bottles and transfer to the bottles you use to feed with. Just trying to figure out the best way to save the most milk in transfer and buy more bottles or more bags.

Thanks for any advice I appreciate it!!

eggmankate · March 2014

My DD takes Born Free bottles. It's annoying when trying to pour bags of stored breastmilk into the daycare bottle because I lose that layer of fat that sticks to the sides of the bags. At work for some of the pumpings I pump directly into a Born Free bottle that will go to daycare the next day. I bought a Born Free Medela adapter at Bed, Bath and Beyond so that I can do this. I'm not sure you'd be able to pump directly into a freezer bag-that'd be hard to hold while pumping. My Friday stash goes into the deep freezer so I pump into the Medela bottle, transfer it to a storage bag in various amounts ranging from 2-4 ounces. I really don't have a good pattern or consistency about transferring milk right now as I'm still figuring it out, but as much as I can I try to get my pumped milk into the storage container I want it to be in right away so that I don't lose that fatty layer that gets caked on after it's been sitting in the fridge for awhile.

Meg&Austin · March 2014

Thanks for all the help ladies seems like either way will work eventually!

73jewels · March 2014

I pump directly into bottles and I've found the bottles I use (Dr. Brown's) twist right into the medela pump, and they fit easily into the medela freezer tote that came with the pump. This way I don't have to do transfers at night. Each day I pump into tomorrow's bottles. I keep freezer bags at work and if any day I am able to pump extra, I pump into the freezer bag and bring it home to freeze.

mommatotwo2 · March 2014

I pump into medela bottles and pour into lanisoh bags. When it's time to pour into bottles, I give the bags a little massage and swish back and forth gently, no fat sticks. I then pour into the bottle. This works best for me because it's less bottles to wash, easy to just pop in the freezer if its getting to the end of its fridge time, quicker for DH to heat when I'm out if the house (daycare gets premaid bottles) and I very rarely pump the exact amount for her 4 oz bottle, its either more or less so it wouldn't make sense for me to pump or store in her feeding bottle.

73jewels · March 2014

as a follow up to what @mommatotwo2 said, I also don't pump exactly the correct amount either but I wind up pumping combining mile from various pumps at the end of the day (usually I pump in 4 bottles the amount needed for 3 feeds, so I just combine the milk from the last bottle into the other 3 to "top them off" enough). So in those instances I do have 1 extra bottle to wash but it's still better for me then pumping into the bags.

Good luck!

eggmankate · March 2014

Sing2phins said:

I've never had trouble pumping in to the Medela bags with the adaptor and never had trouble with spilling milk when transferring from bag to bottle. That said, I only ever pump into bags at home. When I pump at work, I pump in the Medela bottles and then DH transfers the milk into LO's Nuk bottles for daycare each night. For me, it's a peace of mind issue; I feel like the bottles are less likely to leak or spill in my tote (I take the Metro, so I run the risk of jostling).

As for PP who said she couldn't get the fat off the bags, you do it the same way you do a bottle - run it under warm water for just a minute. It's not long enough to heat up the milk, but it's long enough to get the fat to mix back in.

That's good to know! I had assumed that you don't heat bottles until you're ready to serve it.

CNYBride05 · April 2014

I pump into Medela bottles (the 5pz ones that come with the pump) and then transfer to bags and freeze. I don't send fresh milk to DC, just bags of frozen and she thaws and pours into bottles for my girls

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