Breast milk in freezer

[Anonymous]

I have a bunch of frozen breast milk from March, April and May in the freezer but haven’t needed to use it because I am pumping enough and also I am with the baby a lot. Will it last for a year? It’s in a chest freezer. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Yes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes!

Thanks! It is on an upper section of the chest freezer. Should I move it down to the bottom?

[Anonymous]

I thought frozen BM was only good for 6months?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought frozen BM was only good for 6months?

NP. That's what I was told, as well.

[Anonymous]

I've always gone by the four hours, four days, four months rule, unless it's a deep freezer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've always gone by the four hours, four days, four months rule, unless it's a deep freezer.

It’s a chest freezer. Is that considered a deep freezer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always gone by the four hours, four days, four months rule, unless it's a deep freezer.

It’s a chest freezer. Is that considered a deep freezer?

Yes. It's fine up to a year. Smell/taste it on thawing to check but it should be perfectly fine. I have SO much extra milk with this baby due to the pandemic, and I'm about to start throwing out what's older than a year.

[Anonymous]

Regular freezer is 6 months, chest freezer is a year. But those are guidelines, your milk isn’t going to immediately spoil. If it smells and tastes good, then it’s fine. It’s been frozen, not sitting in the fridge.

[Anonymous]

What would make the most sense - freezing the milk I am using now and pulling out the frozen old milk? Or just keep using the milk I am making now and save the frozen milk for later?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would make the most sense - freezing the milk I am using now and pulling out the frozen old milk? Or just keep using the milk I am making now and save the frozen milk for later?

What I did was use yesterdays milk today, and then Friday, put the milk I pumped in the freezer and used the oldest frozen milk on Monday. That way I was at least rotating through my stash a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would make the most sense - freezing the milk I am using now and pulling out the frozen old milk? Or just keep using the milk I am making now and save the frozen milk for later?

It depends. Do you really need to use up everything you stored? I've opted to give fresherst first meaning that much of my stash will probably go to waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would make the most sense - freezing the milk I am using now and pulling out the frozen old milk? Or just keep using the milk I am making now and save the frozen milk for later?

I did 50/50, so my stash stayed fresh, but DC wasn't getting only frozen milk. What's the point of pumping and saving if you're going to waste it later?