Short term breast milk storage

[crisna120]

Does anyone have any ideas as far as alternatives to the expensive breast milk storage bags? I am pretty much exclusively pumping for my LO, so he is using the milk soon after it is pumped, or at least within 24 hours. I am going through so many bags, and they aren't cheap! I will be pumping at work starting next week, so I will need the bottles I pump into for the next day. thanks!

[hotlama]

If your LO is using the milk within 2-3 days you would be better off just storing it in the fridge in plastic or glass bottles. If you have any extra milk after the 3rd or 4th day, use a bag to freeze it.

[Amy_G_]

for the cost of a few weeks of the storage bags, just get an extra day's worth of bottles. depending on the type of bottle, try the playtex drop-in bags and a twist tie?

[hotlama]

Oh, and the gerber bottles are cheap. Buy several so you can have enough.

[Amy_G_]

OP said "so he is using the milk soon after it is pumped, or at least within 24 hours" so it's not even 2-3 days.

If she has some left over, she could freeze it in ice cube trays--they are about 1 ounce and then put the cubes in a larger freezer ziploc bag for storage.

[dewoman81]

I just bought two packs of 4 medela feeding/storage bottles. They are like $15-20 per set. I marked them with a washable marker and was very adamant about putting the newest in the back. Occasionally a bottle would get tossed in the freezer or once it got to be 2 days old I would toss it in a bag and freeze. I think I have used 25 bags in 9 months (except for my recent stash building).

[Mocosita]

Get an extra set of either baby bottles (for feeding at daycare) or just pump bottles. I kept my pumped milk in the extra pump bottles and only froze the Friday's supply and thawed on Mondays. Like Dewoman, I think the last time I bought bags was about 4 months ago...

[klynnw]

I am an ep person as well......invest in the extra bottles. It is way worth it to not wash constantly. I bought the cheapo's from Walmart (they were only $3 for 3 of them).

[canukmom]

I agree, I just used some 500 ml plastic bottles I got at WalMart, and put a day or two's worth of pumping in, and then froze what was leftover on Friday in the bags (I like the Lanoish ones better than the Medela ones)