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| I have recently returned from work after my 3 month maternity leave, so I am having to pump a lot in order to ensure that my son (who is now in childcare) will still be breastfed. Ive been using the Lansinoh breastmilk storage bags, but am having some trouble with leaking when I defrost the milk-not when I fill the bags-just when defrosted. I used to defrost the milk by placing the bag in a bowl of warm water for 30 mins or so, but noticed that milk almost always leaks from the bag into the bowl of water. I had to start defrosting the bags by placing them in an empty bowl on my kitchen counter-which takes hours and hours to defrost. Is there a better way to defrost/better storage option? I usually only fill the bags with about 4-5oz of milk each and just use multiple bags to make bottles (so I dont think overfilling the bags is causing my leaking problem). |
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| i had the same problem with those bags when i was using them. it can be one of 2 things. either the bags are defective, or you are not freezing them correctly. are you freezing them flat, lying down? or are you standing them up to freeze? also, you need to make sure that all of the air is squeezed out of the bags before putting them in for freezing. freezing them lying down will give you more room in your freezer as well and lessen the chance that the bags might be punctured by other things. also, when you defrost them, defrost them under warm or hot running water instead of using a bowl of water. i often found the bags fine when i put milk in them, but they would leak when i defrost them. it could be that package of bags as well. |
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| Thank you for your advice. I never would have thought to freeze them lying down. I will try that and see how it goes. I will also try defrosting them as you suggested (which is actually suggested by Lansinoh as I re read the package) and see if that helps. I doubt its just a defective package of bags because I have a deep freezer full of milk-and have used BOXES of bags and have had the same problem with about 60% of them all so it must be something Im doing. I try to ensure I store them so they wont get punctured by other items, but I will be more careful and see if that helps too (I store a few of them together in larger bags so maybe when they freeze the hard edges are puncturing the bags). |
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| Very strange - I don't recall having leaking problems with Lansinoh bags which was what I also used. You are supposed to squeeze all the air out - make sure they are airtight when sealing them and I always laid the bags flat to freeze and once frozen I would reorganize them standing up. I mostly put the milk bags into the fridge to defrost overnight or something or into a bowl of warm water, if I did need it sooner. |
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| I had the same problem. It was as if the bag cracked in the freezer or while defrosting. I switched to storing my milk in mason jars. I already had a couple dozen of the jam-size jars, and it was easy to record the date and amount on the lid. |
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| Ive always removed the air before storing and made sure they were sealed really well. I will try laying them flat, but Im thinking about just switching to storing my milk in bottle or some other rigid container (didnt think about Mason jars :-)...and the added bonus is that I could re-use those-less waste! |
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| Loosing that much milk must be completely frustrating--I remember wanting to cry the first time I lost my milk into the bowl. By the way, I was able to transfer the frozen milk from the bags into mason jars when it was time to thaw them by ripping apart the plastic. Hopefully that will reduce your losses. Good luck! |
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| I wasn't relying on frozen milk for meals, just for adding to cereal and such, but to avoid the leaking/losing issue, I'd often just set the bag in a container in the fridge to defrost, so that if it leaked, I'd still have the milk in the container. It takes a long time to thaw that way, though! |
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| I relied on pumped breastmilk for almost 4 months, and bought a number of the medela bottles made for storing breast milk. I froze milk in them, and the great thing was I could just defrost it in hot water by putting the bottle in a bowl of hot water, and put a nipple on the bottle and it was ready to go. I found the bottles in boxes of 4, and they weren't too expensive. I actually got a bunch at a garage sale as well and just sterilized the heck out of them (the lady said she'd never used them anyway). I wasn't freezing for an extended period of time, but I would on occasion have 12 bottles in the freezer. The nice thing about the bottles is you can write on them with a wax pencil, they are graduated, and they actually connect to the pump! They were worth the expense for us. I couldn't see throwing away all those bags, I didn't even know people actually used the bags until I saw my sister in law using them. Hope that helps. I cried too whenever I lost breast milk... |
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I don't have any great tips for freezing breastmilk but I did want to remind everyone that if you use up your milk within 8 days you don't have to freeze at all. This is per LLL themselves. Studies have shown that breastmilk remains perfectly good in a standard fridge as long as it's used within 8 days. You save a lot more of the enzymes and antibodies that way too... Less trouble too...
Anyway, don't know what your situation is exactly but 8 days is a long time so you might be able to make it work. Good luck, I remember those days too.
Karen. |
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| oh i cried as well when i would lose milk also. i would transfer it from the bag to a bottle and all of a sudden, the bag would spill everywhere. i found a new clean auto funnel worked well for milk transfers from bag to bottle after that insodent. and i know that everyone here is sighted, but when you go to transfer the milk, make sure that you put the bottle into an empty bowl, then transfer the milk. that way it spills into the bowl and is not lost. another suggestion is to get one of those kitchen measuring cups with the spout on it and pour the milk into that, then transfer it that way. to the original poster, i just remembered something as well. when you open a brand new bag to prepare for use, does the bag stick to itself once you get the zip lock portion open? i always had to take my whole hand, put it inside the bag, and unstick it. when i got a box like that, most of the bags in it were defective. |
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