EBM Storage

[lampes]

I pump three times a day into bottles. I bring them home and twice a week, my DH is responsible for pouring them into ice cube trays and freezing them. He takes the frozen cubes and freezes 4 1 oz cubes using the Foodsaver. This is a vaccuum sealer. We had bought this a few years ago but never used it with any regularity until now. It is a nice division of responsibility for us.

We used to use the Gerber bags but they froze together and when I pulled them apart, the plastic broke, ruining several ounces. I never used them again. The nice thing about the ice cubes is that they fit right into the wide mouth bottles so that there is no waste let in the bag.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

You might want to think about getting it into the freezer each night instead of twice a week. By the time you get to freezing it, half of its "life" is used up and it won't keep as long in the freezer as it would if you froze it right away.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/bo...breastfed2.gif

[lampes]

This may be true but the time commitment involved in freezing the milk, cleaning bottles, etc. is enough that twice a week, regardless of the "loss" of possible nutrients works for us.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

It's not the loss of nutrients that is the issue. It is about how fast it will spoil and be unusable.

It keeps in the refrigerator about 1 week before it spoils. It keeps in the freezer about 3 months before it will spoil. If you leave it in the fridge for half a week, then it is halfway to going bad, so it is not going to keep for the usual 3 months in the freezer, it is going possibly go bad sometime sooner, maybe half that time.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/bo...breastfed2.gif

[lampes]

I really appreciate your concern. We have a deep freeze that is specially designated for breast milk which, according to KellyMom.com, keeps the milk good for 6-12 months. Vaccuum sealing actually preserves items twice as long. If the milk goes bad, so be it.