Freezing breastmilk to make up baby rice

[sophieloafiedoodah]

Hello ladies,

I have just started weaning my little one and find it a little annoying to have to express just a little milk each time I want to give her baby rice. I have some baby food (ice cube) freezing trays, am I ok to fill a couple of cubes with EBM or do I have to stick to the specialist sterilised storage bags for milk?? Wasn't sure about a) safety of contamination and b) the quality of the milk suffering.

Any advice much appreciated!

hello, I think you can use ice cube trays, no problem - I'd just bung the tray in a plastic bag when it's freezing.
To be honest, I got sick of thawing out bags of (precious) EBM just to use for mixing with baby rice, I started using formula to make it up instead. My thinking was that with the introduction of food the 'pristine gut' was gone anyway (I'm assuming you've fed exclusive breastmilk til now?), and I could make up just 1-2 oz fresh each time rather than having to thaw & re-heat.
I believe sterility is less important once the baby reaches 6 months and starts on food - you've probably noticed everything goes in the mouth anyway!

Hiya,

Thanks so much LadyBee. The tray has got a lid on so all good. Yes - I thought about using formula for the food, would be so much easier and you're right about the 'pristine gut' thing..she was exclusively BF until now! I did think that my milk would help the food go down a bit easier because of the familiarity of taste but she seems to be wolfing down everything I give her whether it has milk in or not!

You can use cows milk in cereal at 6 months. Or allot of baby cereals are just add water.

You could give her prorridge just using normal small oats, instead of baby rice. It probaby has more nutritional value.

Your milk is much better just coming straight from you than freezing it, re-heating and then mixing it with something else. Its much easier just to have feeds and a few litle tastes of food during the day. Have you tried BLW?

My ds was the same - I was killing myself trying to make it all familiar and easy..he was grabbing the spoon and was absolutely happy with everything I gave him to try. It's not such a faff when they're only having it once a day, but when you get to doing it several times a day PLUS BFing I think simplifying the process is key!