How much expressed milk to leave for evening out?

[ceejoy]

In a few weeks I'll be leaving 11 week old EBF DD for the evening with her Dad while I go to an event with a friend. I express milk here and there so there's enough for the odd feed so I can have a bath/visit the dentist/get my hair done but I don't know how much to leave for the entire evening. I'll be gone from around 5 until 10 (if I make it that long) and I don't want to defrost too much and waste it, but I'd feel terrible if my little one was hungry and there wasn't enough ready for her! How many feeds and how many oz a feed? Atm she just has whatever I expressed recently and we don't worry too much about amounts as it's just to tide her over for a short while. Any help would be much appreciated.

I don't think anyone can answer tbh, all babies are different! How do you freeze the milk, do you do it in bags or bottles?

I freeze mine individually in storage bags so when I'm out DH just defrosts it as needed - it only takes a few seconds just holding it under warm running water.

It's likely you'll need to express (or that she'll want to feed from you) when you get back though so keep that in mind - obviously if you have a few drinks it's no good to keep but if you stay sober you can express and use it to replace what she drank while you were gone.

I have some bags but I've been using bottles so far. If the bags are easy and quick to defrost I'll just start using them when I express. It sounds pretty fool proof! I don't think it's a drinking thing but I'll keep that in mind. I was actually thinking of stashing my pump in my bag so I can nip to the loos for a while and express if I start to get uncomfortable. Thanks for the help!

Obviously if you have a few drinks it's no good to keep but if you stay sober you can express and use it

This isn't true. Your milk alcohol level only reaches the same as your blood alcohol level. The drink drive limit produces milk roughly as alcoholic as orange juice.
Www.Kellymom.com has a tool to work out roughly how much per feed to leave for baby.

Hi op,

I separate my milk into 3oz pouches so if ds wants more or less it feels less of a waste. For that amount of time at that age my ds2 goes through about 10 oz but every baby is different.

Enjoy ur night out

MrsAukerman that'd be the case if you only had one drink, but if you're out and drinking all evening it wouldn't be good to use. If you'd had say three pints, come straight home and expressed, that milk surely wouldn't be appropriate to feed the baby (just as, I'd hope, you wouldn't get in a car and drive, as the alcohol level in your blood would be too high).

3 pints would be fine. But we digress. I use the rule that if I feel safe to handle a baby then my milk's ok.

Seriously? 3 pints is like 7 units (possibly more depending on the beer). Where would your cut off be?

(I'm not judging you or anything btw - I just don't know where people draw the line tbh. I feel bad drinking a glass of wine if I'm feeding DD but often I'd like to have two!)

But blib it's about how much alcohol there is sitting in your blood after drinking, and it just isn't much. I mean; and this isn't how alcohol consumption works but: 3 pints of 5% beer, dissolved in our 8 pints of blood, (let's say 9 to make the maths easier) makes the whole mixture contain 1.25% alcohol. If you drank a quarter of a pint of that it's barely anything at all. I mean it's probably safe for a child to drink that amount. Taking into account that most of the alcohol doesn't even make it to the bloodstream, in reality the % is way, way less.
The 0.08 drink drive level means 0.08g of alcohol per decilitre of blood; or 0.8g - less than a millilitre - per litre. Basically would you expect a vampire to be drunk after drinking a pissed persons blood!

We massively digress. About 2.5 - 4 oz per feed for a breastfed baby.

Sorry- I actually did mean to post a link I found really useful to work out how much milk to leave.
kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/
Sorry it's not clickable; on my phone.

That's the tool I meant. Cheers moggle.

Thanks! Feel like I know what I'm doing now. I only hope DH feels the same!