Breastfeeding
Jeffreysmom24
member
using frozen bottles
Jeffreysmom24
member
I have a 3 month old and have been back to work for a few weeks now. I have about 50 frozen bottles of breastmilk. Each week, I give the babysitter enough frozen bottles to use for the week, and as I pump bottles at work, I add them to the freezer. So, I have been able to keep the number of bottles that are frozen at around 50. Is this the best way to use them though? I thought it was, because I am using the oldest ones first and this way none of them should go bad. However, I know it is better to give the baby freshly expressed milk. I could use what I have pumped the day before, but then wouldn't the frozen bottles potentially get wasted? I am hoping to keep nursing/pumping for a year and even if I use some of the frozen stash from time to time, it seems like I probably wouldn't use all of it during that time if my pumping remains as it is. Appreciate any thoughts - thanks!!
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Re: using frozen bottles
what many women do is to freeze friday's pumped milk, and send frozen milk on mondays. this way you are rotating through your stash, but your LO is getting fresh milk 4 days out of 5.
you can keep frozen milk up to 6 months in the freezer (up to 12 months if you have a separate chest freezer), so if you find you aren't using up the milk fast enough and it's getting close to its "expiration date" then you can cycle in more frozen.
i wouldn't worry about having lots of excess, though, because you'll probably be able to use it later. i had a couple of ounces extra each day for the first few months. however, there was a period around when DS was 8 months when i was pumping 2x a day, but he was still often taking 3 bottles, so i pulled a good amount from the freezer at that point. i also had extra at the end that i was able to send to DC after i stopped pumping at work (14 months).