Storing small amounts of breastmilk for use in weaning

[shop1909]

Hi hv recommended to freeze some 1oz portions of ebf to avoid waste in early days and wondered what anyone used. They said an ice cube tray but is that ok as not sealed? I normally use lansinoh bags but seems expensive for such small quantities. Or is this just a silly idea as not weaning yet so clueless!

We started weaning onto Solids at 6months. All advice we had was to use cows milk on cereal, cooking etc but to ensure breastmilk (or formula but we were fully bf) was the main drink. We only offer milk or water.

Ice cube trays would be completely fine. But you really don't need bm for weaning.

Thanks - ice cube tray sounds nice and easy (and cheap!) she said I could use cows milk, she just suggested this for if I did express for any reason or found he didn' t like the taste of cows milk

I have used the tommee tippee storage pots for freezing milk (takes up to 2oz and you can wash and reuse!), but have a look in your local 99p store as you might find a bag of v small plastic pots that would do the same job.

I only used BM for the first couple of weeks, either to make veg purée more liquid, or if I was putting baby rice in, but now I just use cows milk.

I read that breast milk that has been frozen has the same nutritional value as formula. Don't know if that's worth considering? It put me off freezing my milk, as it ended up being more work than using formula.

Is that really true? I donated breast milk for prem babies and it was frozen until collected.

Still, once past 6 months was very happy to use cows milk for cooking.

I've never heard that about frozen milk either - I'll ask at my bf cafe group next week! Will freeze some and use for first couple of weeks esp if I start fractionally before 6 months, then move on to cows I think now I'm gaining knowledge - is always something new to learn about!

I fed DS mostly on expressed breast milk until we started weaning, and defrosted breast milk tastes and smells different to fresh breast milk.

This didn't bother DS at all, but you might want to check that your LO is fine with the taste, given that you've been advised to freeze breastmilk in case he doesn't like cow's milk.

Also, DS was in SCBU for a while when newborn, and the neo-natal nurses said that fresh breastmilk was best but that frozen breastmilk was still more nutritious than formula.

I don't know if you can still get them but Asda used to sell containers which hold 50ml or so and were 25p each.

The trouble is I did so much reading about babies, feeding etc when DS was born that I can't remember where I read it or how reliable the source was - maybe even on here?

Happy to be corrected if anyone finds our otherwise!

Actually just done a search and it looks like the majority of sources say frozen us still better than formula. The main story saying its the same is from Fox News so the story was probably paid for by a formula manufacturer

Apologies for throwing the thread!

My advice it to freeze in ice cube tray, once frozen transfer to plastic bag to remain in freezer.
I’ve bags of breast milk, over supply, my baby went on to formula after 3 months. But once defrosted for weaning you can’t put back in the freezer, must be completely used.. so defo advise, freezing small blocks.. not sure what I’m going to do with it now, feels sad to waste it
Also it’s only 3-4 tables spoons added to a meal so not much to waste a bag