Quick question about storing EBM

[hopefully]

My cousin is expressing a couple of times a day, getting a few oz each time, but not enough for a full feed. She wants to freeze this EBM and get her husband to do the odd feed.

So 2 questions:

1. She is expressing into bags at the moment (I think, or into a bottle and pouring straight into a bag). Can she either pour the milk from these bags (stored in the fridge during the day) into one bag or bottle at the end of the day, and freeze this all together, or does she need to freeze each bit as it's expressed?
2. what is the current advice on defrosting EBM? She's too scared to actually defrost any of the millions of 2oz portions in the freezer at the moment!

Funnily enough I looked this up today for the same reason, according to kellymom you can freeze different bits in one pot. I've got a pot in the fridge with 3 sessions worth which I'm going to freeze later

OK, what you can do is freeze some EBM in a bottle. Then the next batch you express, you put in the fridge and when it is chilled, you can then pour it into the bottle of frozen milk and put back in the freezer.

However it is much quicker to defrost 4 X 2oz bags than it is to defrost 1 X 8oz bottle so what she is doing sounds better.

I usually defrost overnight in the fridge or if we need it quickly I put it in the bottle warmer. But if from the bottle warmer it should be drunk fairly quickly.

i chilled as i expressed (pouring into the chilled bottle as I went along) and at the end of the day froze everything from that day in one bag.

To defrost, overnight in fridge best but standing frozen bags in warm water works fine if needed quickly (check bags not split). DO NOT MICROWAVE as it destroys some of the antibodies etc.

Thanks very much! I'll pass it on. chipmonkey I think she's less concerned about the convenience than the fact that she has about 3,000 bags/bottles with 1oz of milk in her freezer, some of which she has to dump as she was too woozy to write a date or anything on it. I guess saving it chilled and freezing at the end of the day might mean she's slightly more with it and writes a date etc and only has one bag/bottle from each date to worry about.

Hang on, has she dumped it yet? Does she know it's good for 6 months from the time she expressed?

Best to express bits and chill these before adding it to the rest of the expressed milk and then freeze - not good to top up already chilled milk with freshly expressed milk because of the warmth which is not good to keep altering the temp of milk because of bacteria growth.

Best way to defrost is as gradual as possible so as to keep all th goodness - overnight in the fridge is best.

Also, avoid freezer burn, by expelling ALL air before sealing the bags - and if you lay the bags flat to freeze, they will defrost quicker than a large lump of milk IYKWIM.