Breast Milk Storage/Freezer Space Rental?

[Anonymous]

My milk filled a deep freezer and my regular freezer. We asked a friend if we could store at her house. My kid never had formula. She drank breastmilk until she was 18 months because of my freezer stash.

[Anonymous]

I hit submit too soon. You can donate also. I gave a little bit of my freezer stash to a friend who had a baby via surrogate. Try to find a used freezer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm someone who had to donate her entire freezer stash when she went back to work, discovered the reheated milk had high lipase, and the baby wouldn't drink it. I now have only enough pumped for a couple days ahead. Do you really NEED more? If so, make sure the baby will drink it.

Ughhh this was me, too. I'm so sorry! So much wasted effort!

[Anonymous]

I EP’d and had to buy two freezers because I made a lot of milk. My milk also had excess lipase and it looked like at first my kid wouldn’t drink it, but he did in the end. There are ways to deal with it like scalding it before you freeze it so you should definitely check to see if that’s needed before you get a lot frozen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm someone who had to donate her entire freezer stash when she went back to work, discovered the reheated milk had high lipase, and the baby wouldn't drink it. I now have only enough pumped for a couple days ahead. Do you really NEED more? If so, make sure the baby will drink it.

Ughhh this was me, too. I'm so sorry! So much wasted effort!

Me too! And I had low supply down every extra ounce was particularly meaningful!

[Anonymous]

Instead of researching extra freezers, research breastmilk. Especially in the middle of a pandemic, you want your baby to get your protective antibodies in the fresh breast milk. If you are producing so much that you need a whole extra freezer, stop pumping so much. Whenever you wean, it will be so much harder if you are over producing. Babies needs change over time. So breast milk from a couple months back really isn’t the best milk for them.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need so much frozen? I don’t understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

PrinceHumperdinck wrote:How much we need is over my pay-grade. More apparantly?

Worst case, we have way too much and end up donating it. Renting/buying a freezer seems to be the only real option I've been able to find ... I'm hoping one of you can prove me wrong though.

I'm not following. Why do you feel the need to pump so much extra milk? Are you unable to nurse on demand? Are you going on medication soon?

Keep in mind, your baby will become a more efficient eater so he or she will be getting enough out of the nursing session and will start to go longer between feedings. In addition, you can start introducing light solids as early as 4 months so even though solids don't replace nursing it is helpful to have a bit of a filler.

Having said that, I think buying or renting a freezer is waste of time and money.

It’s the partner not nursing parent that’s posting.

I'm still not following.

Why is OP pumping so much? As asked upthread, is she not able to nurse on demand, starting on meds, or what? Trying to figure the reasoning that she needs to pump "that" much she needs to buy an extra freezer .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My milk filled a deep freezer and my regular freezer. We asked a friend if we could store at her house. My kid never had formula. She drank breastmilk until she was 18 months because of my freezer stash.

Neither of my kids ever had formula, the first was breastfed until 18months and the second is 11 months old now. I work a "busy" job and (used to?) travel internationally for 2 weeks at a time. Never needed more than one large freezer drawer full of milk, or enough for a month, max two at a time.

Why do you think you'll need all this space?

Calculate how much extra milk you'll be producing, and how much milk you'll need while away. Remember that while you're away from baby, you can pump and bring that home, unless you're on meds.

Babies tend not to drink more than 32oz per day, and it doesn't change much after the first few months (the milk itself changes). So if you will be away for 2 weeks, for example, make sure you have 32oz x 15 days and perhaps a few extra bags in case something happens to one or two. That 's around 100 of those little bags. It doesn't take THAT much space.

[Anonymous]

PP again. Making 5oz extra per day in the beginning would be reasonable, perhaps dropping to 3oz per day extra later on. Anything else and you may be asking for clogged ducts, mastitis, etc.