Quick q. re how much EBM

[prufrock]

As ds has only had occasional late night bottles from dh, I have no idea how much he really needs to eat. We are going away for the night tomorrow and leaving him at home with my parents and a supply of EBM, but I don't know how much to tell them to give him at each feed.
He is 20lbs and 20 weeks, and usually has feeds at 8am, 11am, 3pm, 5.30pm and 7.30pm, with an occasional night feed.
Please help - I don't want him to starve, but I also don't want to waste precious EBM!

Can you give them plenty but get them to leave everything bar one/two batches in the freezer. As he takes one lot, then can get the next one out the freezer - it doesn't take long to defrost and you can get it defrost quciker if you need to by putting it in a bowl of hot water.

That way you can be reassured that he won't go hungry - but not waste any EBM.

If you take it over in a freezer/insualted bag, and put it straight into the freezer, it should be OK.

(I brought back litres of EBM from a week away skiing when ds was 6 months old - we had plenty of ice blocks, but after 24 hours, it had naturally started to defrost - but I put it back in the freezer and ds never had a problem.)

Very difficult question. At that age I left 6 or 7 oz for night feed. Definately agree about leaving split batches. I froze it in 4oz and 2 oz batches but I froze 6 oz bottles for night shift.

Thank you - that makes more sense than my HV - she said 50ozs per day, (so 10oz per feed) but when dh gives him the 7.30pm bottle he only takes about 4oz. I actually have less in the freezer than thought, but should be able to manage 5 x 6oz, with a couple of 2 ozs as extra feeds just in case - why didn't I start planning for this earlier?
Have sent dh to shops on way home for emergency ready made formula, but really don't want to have to use it. Moo Moo

I agree with the 6 or 7 oz. for the night feed. Also, if they get in a pinch, I don't see a problem watering down the middle of the night feed as a lot of babies do that more out of habit/need for comfort, etc. and not so much out of hunger. The information that came with my pump said it was OK to leave for up to a week in the fridge so you may not even need to freeze much just keep it cold on the trip over. It will also stay OK for up to 8 hours at room temp.

I do the same as below. I give my mum 5 6oz bottles for overnight all frozen. I put them in her freezer and tell her to defrost when nessesary. wHEN i FIRST STARTED i USED TO GIVE HER 2-3OZS IN FEEZER BAGS. THAT WAY SHE COULD DEFROST AS MANAY AS NEEDED BUT DIDNT WASTE ANY.

SORRY ABOUT CAPS LOCK