Milk Mate milk storage system

[ralar]

Yesterday I posted about Gerber bags. Today I'm considering going with the Milk Mate milk storage system. It consists of 10 plastic bottles, lids, frezer labels, and a rack to store the bottles in. The milk stock is automatically rotated, so the bottle of milk you pull out of the freezer will be the oldest.

I'm thinking of pumping directly into the (5 oz.) bottles. I will take the bottles to Hannah's daycare if I use a nurser with liners. I'll probably take prepared bottles if I go the route of actual bottles.

Has anyone tried this system? Was it a pain to schlep all the bottles to daycare? Did you use it along with disposable liners or real bottles?

Thanks!

Laurie

[MinnieMouse]

Something to think about....

I am NOT a prolific pumper...but manage to get a enough extra to have a comfortable freezer stash. At my lowest my stash had 11 or 12 4oz "bottles" ...all in Gerber bags that I froze flat then stacked on their sides. Right now I have 25+ "bottles" in the freezer!! Dd just was teething and didn't want much milk during the day from the bottles...I think the nipple hurt her gums.

So a MilkMate system would, in my case take up waaaay too much room in the freezer. In the beginning I wasn't freezing them flat...I don't know what I was thinking....and they froze in lumps of milk. It was REALLY hard to find enough space and keep track of the dates. Since they've been flat it's a cinch. Just lay them flat on a box in the freezer to freeze and then stack them all on their side in date order. It works really well for me and takes us SO much less room.

In freezing the bags flat, they thaw much quicker than the "lumps" did...I would imagine a lot quicker than if they were in the bottles. Oh and my daycare thaws the bottles themselves in a cup of warm water. That way if they don't need the frozen on (as in the case over the last few weeks) they don't defrost it and it isn't wasted.

HTH

Christine

[Catherine226]

Another consideration: When I was researching daycare options, some daycare places will not transfer liquids. If this were the case and if you use your bottle system to freeze milk, you would have to thaw the milk and prepare the bottles before hand, even with the nurser. With the Gerber bags, you could bring the bags (which act as liners) and the nursers and presumably they could thaw the milk? Just a thought...

Catherine

[ralar]

I hadn't thought about transfer issues. I guess I'll use the Gerber bags until the open house at her daycare next week. When I meet her "teacher" I'll ask about using the Milk Mate bottles.

I may not even have a decision to make, after all.