Freezing breast milk

[Lisa78]

This is probably a stupid question, but here goes. If I have expressed half a bottle of milk and frozen it, is it alright to express another half bottle the next day and pour that into the bottle of frozen milk, or do I have to freeze it separately?
I have added some fresh to some frozen, but now I am wondering if thats okay?
TIA

[mears]

Freeze it separately Lisa78 because the liquid milk will partly defrost the frozen milk when it is added. If you want to have a larger amount frozen as one feed then collect milk over 48 hours and keep init in the fridge till you have the amount you want, then freeze it. Initially I would say freeze milk in batches of 2oz and 4oz until you guage how much baby normally takes because you do not want to waste any of it. If 4oz is not enough you can always defrost another 2 oz fairly quickly IYSWIM..

[Lisa78]

Thanks Mears
Is it okay to defrost it in a jug of hot water, or do I have to leave it in the fridge to defrost "naturally"?

[mears]

You can defrost quickly in hot water if you want - that is what I always did. You can also leave in fridge overnight. Whatever suits really.

[motherinferior]

I've heard the bags leak but it's not happened to me. YET.

[mears]

I had a problem with bags leaking so quickly transferred the contents out into a wide necked bottle before I lost to much.

[Lisa78]

I've been freezing it in the Avent bottles, I got the starter pack incl bottle warmer, breast pump etc. It didn't have any of those freezer bags in and when I looked in mothercare, I couldn't work out if I needed a special bottle to put the bags in, or if I could empty it from the bags into a normal bottle, so gave up!

[Demented]

Lisa78 I have two unopened packs of the sterile Avent bags sitting around doing nothing, if you want them contact me via contact another talker. I used to pour the milk from the ordinary Avent bottles into them, saved me needing to buy any more bottles.

[Tissy]

Lisa78

If you want to express directly into the bag, you need a special "disposable bottle holder" from Avent. What I did was express into a 4 oz bottle then pour into a bag for freezing. you can buy packs of bags, clips and a special holder to stop them falling over whilst freezing and defrosting, but TBH you don't need all of these, just the bags! Once you've poured the milk into the bag, seal it with a twist or the small bag clips you can get for next to nothing at lakeland, and PUT IT IN ANOTHER BAG- it doesn't have to be a sterile breast milk bag, I used small plastic bags, again from Lakeland. This is because the Avent bags can leak at the corners when defrosting- so the outer bag stops your milk ending up on the table!

BTW, the Boots bags are already double-skinned, so don't leak.

[motherinferior]

Ah, it's the Boots bags I've got. No wonder they don't leak.

[collision]

Demented, have you still got those breastmilk bags as I need to buy some and thought I could just buy them off you if that is OK.

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I would resurrect this one as recommended yesterday!

I freeze BM for ds who is 11 weeks but DH is convinced that ds knows it is different and that the consistency is wrong. DH says that it separates and seems 'yukky!' Is there a difference?

I went to bed at 10pm last night leaving DH with a bottle of EBM defrosted for the next feed. DH said he spat it all out at 1am and wouldnt settle.

Any ideas?

[vicdubya]

Is he having the milk warm or cool, Collision?

Ds never liked taking EBM from a bottle so I gave up in the end. Never takes a bottle at all.

Has been hard never being able to leave him for long, or get a full night's sleep, so I would persevere if I was you

[collision]

Hi Vic....he will take room temp milk from a bottle or heated....as it comes really. The prob seems to be with frozen defrosted milk even if it is warm. Maybe it is just that fresh is nicer... I prefer fresh veg to frozen! DH was the one who told me to go and ask my friends on Mumsnet!!

[NotQuiteCockney]

I find the milk separates when it's cold (makes sense, it hasn't been homogenized!). If you reheat it and give it a good shake, it tends to look like normal milk again. No idea if it tastes right, though.

[tiktok]

I'd check what you are freezing it in, collision....maybe it taints the milk with a different taste. Could it be picking up taints from your fridge or freezer???

Shouldn't otherwise affect it.

Vast majority of babies accept defrosted ebm.

[HunkerMunker]

I use the Lansinoh breastmilk storage bags - they are fantastic. No fiddly ties or clips - they have a double ziplock seal and a space at the end of the bag (away from the milk) to write the date expressed and amount of milk in the bag. Lansinoh bags

They're made of really good plastic that doesn't leach into the milk and are just fab. I take a couple in my coolbag to pour the milk straight into when I express at work. MUCH easier than fannying around with bottles (I find my Isis leaks a bit now). (You can get them in Boots and Mothercare and possibly supermarkets and I promise I don't work for Lansinoh!!!)