Excess breastmilk?

nicolejoy

nicolejoy

Registered User
I have a one week old baby and she's currently in NICU. I've been pumping for her and taking it up - but she's currently only drinking something like 240mL a day and I'm now pumping about 700mL a day. I don't want to reduce my pumping because I know that if I want to breastfeed her long term, I need to maintain my supply - but I don't have the freezer space to store the excess. I don't like that I've been dumping hundreds of mL every day - but I know that HK doesn't have milk banks etc... anyone know of any way to use an extra few hundred mL of breastmilk a day??
 
No idea about the breastmilk but it does seem a shame to waste it! Just wanted to say congratulations and hope baby is well enough to go home with you soon.
 
Why don't you bring it home and freeze the excess for future use? I've read your blog - hope you and your baby are doing well!! and CONGRATS!!!
 
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Congrats to you on the new baby and the plentiful milk supply! Do you have a friend or family that could store some frozen milk for you in their freezer? I had to throw it away too as our freezer was tiny. Broke my heart.
 
Congratulations!!! Read your blog, your daughter Maddy is very beautiful just like her sister Lana. I am sure she will overcome the little problems she is facing and be ready to go home soon. All the best!!!
And yes about the milk, ask the parents waiting outside the NICU if they would like to give your breast milk to their baby. Sounds odd but if I were a mum who had short supply and someone offered I would not refuse. Its liquid gold :)
 
Did you eventually asked to the maternity ward in the hospital if they would be interested ? Maybe some other babies could benefit your milk when their mums are not able to bf or pump ?
 
I don't think that the NICU likes to share breastmilk around but I could ask them... I haven't talked to other parents in there yet - it's kind of hard to start up a conversation in there, everyone's preoccupied with their own problems.

I don't have the freezer space to build up a store. The NICU doesn't take breastmilk storage bags as they leak - so I need freezer room for 8 bottles a day plus ice bricks to make sure it's frozen on arrival. If I don't take it to their standards, they reject it. But their standards take up 80% of my freezer leaving me little room for my own food stuff!! So anything that involves my own freezer is out. Could possible borrow from a friend, I guess...

I thought of putting it in the fridge and giving it to my 21 month old daughter instead of cows milk - but she's been weaned for about 6 months now and I'm not sure if that's "weird", even though it's probably still got health benefits for her too... I dunno!!
 
in this case, i would give it to the older kid. it wouldn't be "weird" unless she doesn't like the taste of it anymore.....
 
Congrats Nicole! I think it would be okay to give it to your older one as well. So much better than formula!
 
I had the same problem with you and I ended buying a freezer. I bought a small Zanussi freezer from Fortress. I know you said that you don't have freezer space but do you have a place to put a small freezer? You can put it anywhere as it will only be a temporary solution; the living room, the bedroom, anywhere where you can find a small footprint. It's worth it because you can store tons of milk in there. And because it's a freezer, the temperature is kept at -17 degrees C; you can store the breastmilk up to six months. When you're done using it, you can sell it.

There is a place where you can rent freezers but I found that it would actually cost more (about $300 a month, vs. a new freezer for $1,200) to rent. This is a couple of years ago.

Good luck!
 
At the moment, I'm just giving it all to the hospital - they only tell me AFTER they increase her feeds, so I figure I'd rather them be able to increase them since they've got the excess there. She's currently drinking 60mL per feed, but I'm giving them more like 100mL for each feed. I know that they're chucking out the extra 40mL, but on the positive side, if the doc wants to increase her feeds, at least they have the milk there to do that without needing to give her formula as well... And now that she's drinking a lot more, I'm not chucking out any at home any more...

Thanks for all the ideas though :)
 
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