My baby is 12 (!!!) weeks old and EBF. I am lucky to so far have a bit of an oversupply; today, for example, I pumped almost 15 ounces more than she took from a bottle. I never intended to build a huge freezer stash, but I kind of have. So...now what? It's a refrigerator/freezer, so milk only lasts 3-ish months, and my oldest milk is getting closer. I can easily cover enough for daycare each day. Even if I have them give her frozen milk on Mondays, I'm way ahead and we won't go through it all very quickly. Now what???
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Hmm... Could you donate the extra that you know you won't use? We use one bag of frozen milk every night in her evening bottle. But, I'm a SAHM. If I weren't I would want to nurse at that time.
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@JessiBee: can you mix your fresh milk with some frozen milk and cycle through that way? and start freezing whatever remains of your newly pumped milk?
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Have a night (or two) of wine and margaritas! Use your supply that way
I'd probably do what Mrs. High Heel suggested and mix fresh and frozen.
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@JessiBee: I try to give 1 bottle of frozen at least every other day, but it's kind of a pain..
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@JessiBee: I thought a normal fridge/freezer lasts 6 months?
I have a ton of milk (oversupply at the beginning, too), and I am a WAHM 90% of the time. I use our frozen milk stash the other 10% and I actually gave some to a friend after she had surgery and her LO wouldn't take formula.
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@HabesBabe: it's 3-6 months. Personally, I would wait 6 mo. before dumping, but I try to cycle through as much as possible (currently using January milk out of a deep freezer). It's just a personal choice.
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@Mrs. High Heels: just curious, what's the thought behind mixing fresh and frozen?
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@aprk: the composition of breastmilk continues to change along with your growing baby, so that's one method of cycling out older milk while still providing your baby with the most current nutrients.
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I use freezer milk when my supply gets low, like if I'm sick or something. But I don't have a huge stash. If I did, I'd work in the old milk constantly and freeze some of the fresh as I go.
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@Mrs. High Heels: ok that's what I thought but wanted to check
thanks!
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@aprk: sure, anytime!
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Thanks, all! I guess I will probably just only send about half of what she needs to daycare each day, and have them use frozen for the rest. Although, @littlepenguin: I may try your idea, too!
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I built a big freezer stash before I went back to work.
At that time LO was getting two bottles at school. I would send one bottle of fresh milk and one bottle of frozen milk (sending the oldest milk). That way I cycled through my freezer stash. The LC also told me that if I get close to expiration date on frozen milk, send 2 bottles of frozen milk.
If you plan to EBF for several more months, you might want to purchase a deep freezer. We purchased a small cheap one and that helped save milk for longer.
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I have a small freezer stash (about 40 ounces but growing as I am able to pump 2-6 ounces daily more than he takes at daycare). My plan is to freeze what I pump on Fridays and use the oldest frozen milk on Mondays for his daycare bottles. My stash only goes as far back as the middle of April right now. Then on the odd non-work day that DH gives him a bottle while I'm out of the house, I'd use frozen for that as well since he'd be getting fresh from me the remainder of the day. I figure it will also come in handy if I have a low output for any reason.
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i have the same issue too...because you have an oversupply, you'll just continue to add even though you are cycling thru your frozen milk, so your stash will continue to grow. which isn't a bad thing, but i am running out of freezer space. anyway, i think there is a facebook group called human milk for 4 human babies and you can join your local one and donate your milk that way. i haven't done it yet, but thats probably what i will do.
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