Expressed milk for 6.5 month old - beaker advice!

[sar123]

Hi - my dd is 6.5 mths old and i have been weaning her for 4 weeks. Still breast feeding 4x a day and trying to avoid formula and bottles - so far she has had neither and i'd like to keep it that way. She is taking water at mealtimes from a beaker with a spout. My question is about feeding expressed milk to her when I am out as i find public breast feeding v. tricky to manage these days! Does anyone have any advice about beakers / cups etc that I can store expressed milk in for carrying around with me and that will be good for her to drink from??? Does it matter if i just use a trainer beaker like the one she's taking water from (but keep it in a cool bag?). Thanks.

[floraflora]

My LO uses an Avent beaker with a soft, flat spout and no handles. I was all for getting him to use a doidy cup so we cut out the beaker stage but my mother bought it and it seems to work well. Liquids went EVERYWHERE with the doidy cup. We also experimented with a bigger Avent beaker with handles and a less soft spout but it had to be quite full before he got anything out of it and that meant it was too heavy. So I think getting something small enough for them to be able to tip a little and get liquid quite quickly so they cotton on easily is my top tip.
A well sealed beaker should work okay but DS is teething so likes to chew the spout which means potential leaking of the precious boob-juice!

[sar123]

thanks both - a friend gave me a pump which comes with a bottle with travel lid so i will use that and decant into beaker. seems such a stupid question to ask but has been bothering me for ages!!!! have gone this far without bottle feeding, didn't really want to start now. Flora as you say just don't want to spill / waste the precious fruits of hard labour!

[fluffyanimal]

I think Avent do beakers that fit directly onto their breast pump, if you happen to have an Avent pump.

[floraflora]

Don't know the answer to this but I'll be interested to see other responses. My DS is 7.5 months and has had a bottle at the childminders for last couple months, but when I was making them up this AM (with EBM) they suddenly seemed very babyish for him. He will drink cows milk and water from a spouted cup, or indeed a grown up cup when we have the patience.
I can't see why one shouldn't give EBM in a cup. Only risk it seems to me is spilling of the precious stuff you've slaved to get out.