Separate fridge/freezer for storing breastmilk?

[Anonymous]

I heard of some mothers who actually store their BM in a separate (mini) fridge for hygiene purposes. I wonder if anyone on this forum does the same thing, and if so, which is a good brand to buy? I have concerns storing BM in my current freezer, along with frozen meat, although it's sealed.

[Anonymous]

You store ice cream in there with the meat to no ill effect. It's fine, really.

[Anonymous]

For hygiene purposes? Absolutely not. For practical reasons, yes, it helped to have the extra freezer space. I had over supply and worked full time - the entire basement freezer was packed with breastmilk at its peak and there wouldn't have been room for other food. It was just an inexpensive top/bottom fridge freezer.

[Anonymous]

I understand the hygiene concern. I put all the milk bags in a gallon ziploc bag, to avoid any contamination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard of some mothers who actually store their BM in a separate (mini) fridge for hygiene purposes. I wonder if anyone on this forum does the same thing, and if so, which is a good brand to buy? I have concerns storing BM in my current freezer, along with frozen meat, although it's sealed.

So you think frozen meat will contaminate your milk?

neurotic

[Anonymous]

Never got an extra fridge/freezer. The breastmilk is sealed in either a bottle or a bag. Ideally you keep your meat well-sealed as well. No problems.

[Anonymous]

Overkill.

[Anonymous]

It. Is. Frozen. Wth?

[Anonymous]

I'm seriously contemplating buying a chest freezer just for EBM, not for sanitary reasons but for space reasons. I'm a couple weeks away from running out of room in my regular basement freezer and my husband is getting annoyed that we can't store much else down there. But I want to keep building up my stash in case I get pregnant before my son is a year old.

[Anonymous]

For space reasons, sure. For hygeine reasons? Neurotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm seriously contemplating buying a chest freezer just for EBM, not for sanitary reasons but for space reasons. I'm a couple weeks away from running out of room in my regular basement freezer and my husband is getting annoyed that we can't store much else down there. But I want to keep building up my stash in case I get pregnant before my son is a year old.

I did that- in fact, had to buy 2 freezers b/c I EPd and had a lot of frozen milk. We now use one freezer for regular food and the other sits there empty (guess we should sell it or something).

[Anonymous]

Once you put the breast milk in bags/bottles to freeze and close them, I doubt there would be any contamination issues as long as you generally follow some minimal hygiene. I did buy a chest freezer because I was EPing and at one point had chest freezer three fourths filled with milk packages. I bought just for space reasons as we have a small regular freezer.

Chest freezer cost about 150 or 175, I forget now but served the purpose well. I figured as the kids grow, we will make use of the extra freezer space. After the breast milk purpose was served, we cleaned it and unplugged it. It is out and and ready to go for the second child now.

[Anonymous]

I stored my milk in the top rack of the freezer, above the frozen meats, so no meat - breastmilk touching. But I didn't have much of a freezer stash, I just had a little back up but otherwise pumped what I needed for the following day and kept it fresh.

If you plan to freeze hundreds of ounces at once or what to store it for a prolonged period of time (like if you travel for work), then go ahead and get a deep freezer. Otherwise, just put the milk storage bags in a heavy duty ziploc freezer bag and you should be fine.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My frozen bm went right on top of/around/between slabs of raw meat, processed meals, vodka, etc...

It's frozen. It's fine.

[Anonymous]

Only reason to get a difference freezer is that the BM can take over your freezer and leave no space for all that frozen meat, ice cream etc. I had that problem and I wish that I'd had a small chest freezer to dump the BM in.