Can I express & freeze now to be used in about 6 months?

[CheshireDing]

I am wondering whether I can start to build up my supply in the freezer for DH to use if I go back to work when the baby is 9 months old and DH uses the last 3 months of my ML ?

As your milk is supposed to change to meet the needs of the baby I have never really understood how it can be frozen then for them, as surely by the time you feed it to them they may not require it in that consistency, iykwim ?

[Happydaze247]

Yes, it will be fine. You're right that breastmilk does change in consistency but it will still be very beneficial to your dc.

[BertieBotts]

I think you're only supposed to keep it for 6 months frozen, not sure how they have decided that though. I think it's to do with the nutrients breaking down or something.

I wouldn't worry about the consistency, I don't think it changes a massive amount.

By 9 months you should be fine to breastfeed when you're at home and just give food and water when you're not, though, so you probably won't need as much milk as you think, it might be useful to have a freezer stash just in case DH needs some, but I should think it will be about one feed in a day, no more than that (if that).

Also worth doing a trial run - there's a fairly rare thing where breastmilk can taste "soapy" when frozen and thawed, it would be rubbish to express for months and only find out half a year later.

[CheshireDing]

OK great, thanks for the info ladies.

[WillSingForCake]

Can I also suggest that if you have 2 freezers, or access to someone else's (eg your mum's) that you keep some of your milk stored in the other one too? I built up a huge supply of frozen breastmilk, then came back from holiday to find the freezer had broken, and everything had defrosted including all my milk. This was years ago & I'm still upset about it!!