The breastmilk debacle

sopranoali · July 2014

Paging @babycaps‌ and really anyone else who knows what the hell they're doing!

I've been freezing milk since late April...and I totally did not date anything. Like back row bottom is the oldest, then the row in front of it is newer, and the row on the top is the newest. I think I'm just going to label them into categories 1, 2 and 3...

Then I got to thinking, *should I let her drink the NEWEST first?* I know this goes against logic of getting rid of the oldest first in order to make freezer time short. But...I'm thinking the nutrients in the newest milk match closest to her needs now. Then as foods begin going into her diet, it will be more ok for the oldest breastmilk to be used. Especially since I'm going to purée and ice cube the foods with breastmilk.

I exclusively pump and I am seriously trying to brainstorm when I can STOP %^!£% pumping!

I only have about 100 oz frozen, so I know I will need to pump a while. But should I be thawing milk to feed her now and freezing what I pump? If no, when I have to dip into my stash should I feed her newest first?

Sorry this got rambly.

sopranoali · July 2014

What I mean is I will purée foods with fresh pumped breastmilk (probably start making mass quantities of purées in September) and then freeze into cubes.

I know that you can NOT thaw breastmilk then purée then refreeze. Big no no.

Golf424 · July 2014

I always used the oldest milk first ( 2 a days a few times a week) - but I am also nursing- maybe you could pull out 2 old a day - and freeze excess fresh- then you are somewhat rotating your stock.

lwebley · July 2014

I think @babycaps posted about this a while back. I believe she said to use the newer stuff first.

sopranoali · July 2014

Same here @meowmix12‌ like I said I didn't start freezing til late April and my baby was born March 7 so I supplemented for a looooong time. We never got the hang of BFing so I EP. I'm trying to stop pumping ASAP and live off my stash.

I know generally "food before 1 is just for fun." So I want to make sure there is enough BM for her to get to March 7, 2015 before I quit pumping...

jennybean80 · July 2014

With DS1 I was home 10 months (DH took 4 months at the end) and I literally had a chest freezer full to the top of frozen milk. I pumped like a crazy mofo at the beginning while he was in the NICU and because his initial volumes were so tiny (3mL/hr) I was producing a ton more than he needed.

It all got used up. He went through a couple periods where he wasn't gaining as much weight as they wanted and we'd increase his calories by nursing then topping up with a bottle (sometime with formula added to the BM). Also we started him with infant cereals for solids and used BM to mix it in. He loved the cereals an ate them until well after 1 so he was getting some BM even after we stopped EBF.

eta spelling

fish8412 · July 2014

I'm a stay at home mom and our deep freezer is almost full. I pump 4 times a day because
1. If anything happens to me, LO will still have breastmilk for a while
2. My husband can give a bottle every other day
3. When we have an occasional date night my parents can give a bottle
4. I am paranoid my supply will tank for some reason.
I know I sound crazy but I would rather have too much breastmilk than too little. I've already donated about 60 ounces to the local la leche league.

matthewmegan · July 2014

I work from home, but have a huge freezer stash. With DD1, I had major over supply issues which resulted in a freezer full of milk. It came in handy when I found myself pregnant when DD1 was 7 mo old and my nipples became too sensitive to pump or breastfeed with out tears (it was worse then when we started out.) I had 2 month saved up, so she was only on formula for 2 months before switching to cow's milk. I don't PLAN to find myself in that situation again, but am prepared if I get sick and need to take medication or if I want to have a (couple) glass(es) of wine at night after my 2u2 are in bed and can pump and dump. I'd also love to be done pumping by Christmas time and know that DD will be taken care of without having to spend the money on formula.

matthewmegan · July 2014

But to answer the original question, I rotate to make sure the old doesn't go bad. She usually gets 2 bottles of fresh milk (4 oz and 6 oz) during the day and 1-8oz bottle of frozen right before bed. She also nurses twice a day (6:45AM & 4PM) and is not currently eating any solids yet.

kstar83 · July 2014

@FFwifey‌ I have a stash because for whatever reasons I have serious food insecurity for my child. Everytime we go out I take formula and a fresh bottle of milk if I can, if not I also bring a frozen stash to warm up. I am super paranoid of being caught out (flat tire, etc) and not having food for her. She eats on demand so I never really know how much she is going to eat, when. Although that is getting better.

We are EP, she can't latch so should I not have a bottle, she goes hungry until I can get one together. Plus I went back to work and am battling mastitis right now, so my supply has dipped a bit and I have had to dip into freezer. I think its more of a comfort thing, a security blanket if you will. Plus like someone else said, I would rather have too much than not enough.

Ceventa · July 2014

I'm a working mom and like others said, my main goal for the freezer stash was to anticipate a dip in my supply. I started pumping to create my stash when LO was 4 weeks old, nothing crazy, just pump each boob once a day. At 6 weeks old I would give him one bottle of stash-milk a day (oldest first) just to get him used to the bottle since I knew he would be eating from the bottle all day when I went back to work.

Currently, I pump 3 times a day at work and nurse him when I'm home and on the weekends. So he usually drinks the milk I pumped the day before. I tend to dip into my stash if I didn't quite pump enough the previous day and I supplement with my frozen milk. Sometimes if I'm in a hurry on the weekends and can't stop to nurse I'll defrost a bag of frozen milk and let DH feed him (like if I'm cleaning the house), and I usually use freezer milk if I'm shooting a wedding the whole day and don't have enough pumped milk available.

My oldest milk right now is from the last week of May and I'm trying to finish it up. So it's not too old, but I have a pretty nice stash there in case of emergencies.

katka512 · July 2014

I'm a sahm and EBF. LO nurses on one side at a time so in the morning I pump from the side she doesn't nurse on and put that in my stash. DH gives her a bottle of pumped milk every night and I also pump then to ease the engorgement in the morning.
My freezer stash is getting a bit too large now though for the space we have available. LO gets 1-2 bottles of frozen milk a week and then I just freeze some of my fresh supply to replace those bottles. I use oldest first but since she gets frozen so rarely, I am not concerned. Sorry if this ends up being a text block. I'm mobile.
ETA I freeze in case I am sick or unable to nurse at some point. I will also use any stash I have to mix with solids and will continue to give her BM in a cup whenever we finish nursing. I'm hoping to make it to a year.

The breastmilk debacle

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