Breastmilk Storage - Jamaica,NY

The problem could possibly be that the breast milk may not be warm enough for baby, they are in my personal opinion very picky about their milk when they are young, and again in my personal opinion men can tend not to heat the milk up enough for fear of burning the baby.
You know how your not suppose to microwave breastmilk well then I microwave the water, dip the bag it heats up faster for hungry baby. My hubby prefers to run it under tap water which takes forever and my poor dear gets so angry waiting. This is especially good way when the milk is frozen.

As far as milk pumped at work it can go right into the fridge when you get home with no problem, it just cannot go from the freezer thawed out and then put back into the fridge it has to be used (generally immediately) after leaving the freezer, but funny it can last at least two hours after being heated from the fridge, and even longer when pumped and prepared for a feeding and never refridgerated...

The nurses at the ICU told me that it is best to use the most recent pumped milk first as opposed to the frozen milk, not sure how that is possible but go figure...

When my daughter was younger she would refuse a bottle if she could see or hear me anywhere in sight, is hubby trying to give her the milk while you are around? Make sure he feels comfortable and understands all the breast mik rules! LOL

You can keep the frozen milk for a time when you go out for an extended period, or if the baby goes through a growth spurt. It will last 3 months. I used the milk I pumped for the next day and just kept it in the fridge, but you are supposed to be able to take refrigerated milk and put it in the freezer. If you thaw it, you have to use it within 24 hours, but if you pump and store in the fridge, it will last 5-7 days. Have you started exercising or eating different foods, or feeling stressed? These things can change the taste of the milk, so you might want to experiment with the frozen milk to see if the baby drinks that. Do make sure the nipple hole is the right size, and that the milk is room temperature when tested on your wrist. I hope it goes well!

It's most likely the tempararure the bottles being served at when the baby is eating it try to keep it at room tempararure.

Hi K.! Congrats on the baby.

I am a working Mom too and pumped at work for both my children and plan to do the same for our third (currently cooking - lol.)

I pumped a lot of excess milk off when I was home on maternity leave too. Then, when I went back to work, I pumped upwards of 4 times a day. I use a medala "pump n' style" pump. What I liked about the medela system was the hard palstic containers that I could freeze the milk in. They hold about 2.8 ounces and we could take out multiple containers on an as needed basis.

When at work, I made sure to have frozen the ice pack (that came with the pump) the night before and then would keep it and the fresh milk in the fridge until I left work. The milk should be just fine that way.

I always tried to defrosted the next days milk over night in the fridge, if we weren't using fresh milk from my pumping sessions. Typically, Monday was a frozen milk day for us and the rest of teh week was fresh. The milk from Friday usually got used for cereal and whatnot over the weekend. also, I was taught to never, ever microwave the actual milk. I was told to heat a cup of water (we use a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup) and set the bottle in there for a few minutes.

As a general rule of thumb, I used the "Rule of 5" - 5 hours without refridgeration, 5 days with it, 5 weeks in the fridge freezer and 5 months in the deep freezer. I agree that is best to freeze it aas soon as possible though and not wait until the 5th day.

Now, as for taking the breastmilk from a bottle, I have written about this aspect before. The biggest mistake with my daughter was exclusively BFing her. We had a huge battle of the wills over taking a bottle - of any kind! You can search through my responses to read my story but the short version is she had no choice and neither did we - we had to "wait her out" and it was one of the most painful experiences as a new mom! Ultimately though after about 14 hours she started taking a bottle - minimally at first and then hungrily. Then we had to keep her guessing about what was coming her way - a breast or a bottle. After about 2 weeks, we were able to settle into a routine and switch back and forth with ease.

My gut reaction is not to confuse the issue by introducing formula. It is sweeter than BM and for that reason often is preferred by baby. Also, it flows a lot quicker from a bottle (it is so much thinner than BM) so, if you must give the baby formula, use the lowest possible nipple size. On the other side, BM can be thicker and my little man would get frustrated at the bottle so we used the larger holed nipple for BM. If you want your little one to have BM, than that is what is on the menu and that is what he/she must be "forced" to eat - no choice. It sounds like you are caring for your milk just fine so there should be no concern about spoilage. I will tell you though that whomever is feeding the BM should be able to quickly determine if it has spoiled. It smells really sour (at least to me) and in some cases can curdle - although this is NOT the same as seperation of the milk and the fat layer. And if you are using the smaller storage containers, you can check each one individually with a quick sniff before adding it to one large bottle - this avoids having to toss a whole bottle of your liquid gold.

Best of luck. It sounds like you are doing everything right to care for the BM prior to feeding your baby. Now, it is just a matter of getting your baby on board! :-)

~C.

Put it in the fridge until you get home, then it can go to the freezer when you are ready. Congratulations on the new baby!

Sometimes frozen breastmilk takes on a weird taste. I have heard that scalding it can help.

Breastmilk is good for 4-8 hours at room temp, 4-8 days in the fridge and about 6-8 mos in the freezer (depending on the source). I would not leave it in the fridge for 6 days and then freeze it (because by that time it's basically reached its max for refrigeration), but a day or two is fine. I'll pump, refrigerate, pump again, mix the two and then freeze. Sometimes I'll leave the milk in the fridge a day or two before freezing and we've never had a problem.

Frozen milk must be used within 24 hours of defrosting it. However freshly pumped milk will last between 4-8 days if just kept in the refridgerator. What I would always do is keep my milk in the fridge at work and use that milk the following day along with whatever I had in my home fridge that I had pumped the morning before or night before. I would always use the oldest milk first so that his bottles were always fresh and no milk had to be thrown away. On Fridays I would freeze my milk and then Monday Morning would defrost the oldest milk in the freezer so that my frozen supply was always updating itself and never got older than 60 days. I think milk kept beyond that gets a little frostbitten and prone to spoilage, even though Medela says you can store it frozen longer.
He is only 6 weeks old, he will go through feeding phases for the next several years. Most likely this will pass, have hubby continue to give him bmilk and if he refuses, let him wait 30 minutes and then feed him again. Your little guy will get the hang of it. It is a tough transition for a baby so young.
Best!