I can not, repeat CAN NOT believe it is already November! Where did 2017 go? Halloween came and went and now Thanksgiving and Christmas are upon us. Baby L has been under the weather and my poor little turtle is having allergies really bad. He stayed home from daycare with his maw-maw earlier this week and because he was sick he wasn’t eating very much and had a leftover bottle. What to do?
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If you are a pumping mommy (like myself) then there will come a time where you will have some breast milk that your little one cannot drink. Either it’s been in the freezer too long, it smells off, or (the most common issue in my experience) your care provider has not used the oldest milk first! This is a problem you can only fully appreciate if you are a pumping mommy and therefore join me in the soul crushing gravity of the situation and possibility of having to waste this liquid gold that you worked so hard to obtain.
Here is more explanation than you probably need…
I am always rotating my frozen breast milk stash to make sure that I never have a problem with my milk being in the freezer too long. I pump roughly 3-4 feedings worth of milk for Baby L each day. He usually only drinks three feedings while I am at work. For a little while we were sending four bottles a day while we were figuring out how many bottles he needed.
So I would send three bottles of milk that I pumped from the day before and one bottle of thawed breast milk. I would CLEARLY label and tell our daycare that the thawed breast milk needed to be used first and what would happen? I would get that thawed bottle sent home at the end of the day. What are the odds! 25% that’s what the odds are!
I’m realistic; they are busy and it happens. But that still leaves me with the problem of what to do with this “expired” breast milk.
Option #1: We could feed Baby L that bottle at his next feeding; BUT that would mean that I would have to pump to replace that feeding and not get my snuggles in for the night. Let me tell you after pumping all day at work, that is the LAST thing I want to do. Remember that you need to use thawed breast milk within 24 hours, so using it for the next day is not an option.
Option #2: We could dump it. NOOOOO! It makes me cringe to pour breast milk down the drain and I will admit I have done that a few times in the beginning when I was clueless and didn’t know what I was doing (Note: I am still clueless and don’t know what I’m doing, just less so now).
That brings us to option #3: figure out alternative ways to use breast milk other than have Baby L drink it.
So what can I do with my “expired” breast milk?
1.) Use for Sore/Cracked Nipples – Seriously, in first few weeks of breastfeeding I had such a hard time with sore/sensitive nipples that when Baby L was done nursing, I would dab a few drops on each nipple and just let it air dry. It REALLY helped.
2.) Ear/Eye Infections – I have not personally used this one yet but it is supposed to work wonders. You just add a few drops and voila!
3.) Skin Conditions – A milk bath is my favorite use for old breast milk. When Baby L gets diaper rash I have him take a breast milk bath and it really helps with the healing. I will sometimes thaw some milk when he has a really bad diaper rash just because it works miracles. It’s also good for cradle cap. I use around 6 ounces in an infant tub. You want to use enough that the water is a tad more than cloudy. You also will want to put lotion on your baby after the bath to lock in moisture.
For more pumping fun, you can check out my post on The Nursing Mommy’s Guide to Pumping at Work.
What do you do with your “expired” breast milk? I would love to hear from you!
