EBM questions
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Category: Have A Baby?
Forum Name: First baby? Second or more?
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URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=27692
Printed Date: 06 September 2025 at 5:36am
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Topic: EBM questions
Posted By: lilfatty
Subject: EBM questions
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 6:26pm
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Firstly thanks for all of you who answered my previous "when do you express" question .. ive got into a routine of expressing twice and I get about 200 mls a day.
My questions are ..
Im just wondering mostly because I was freezing it in daily lots (which could be more than 200mls at a time), then I thought, baby might not drink that much and then ive just wasted the rest of the bag. So now i freeze in 125ml lots .. but im still a tad confused it this is too much/not enough, so any help would be appreciated. Edited to add .. I havent tried to bottle feed him yet, so im not sure how much he is going to have at one meal, hence my confusion. ------------- Mummy to Issy (3) and Elias (18 months) I did it .. 41 kgs gone! From flab to fab in under a year  http://www.femininefitness.co.nz/category/blog - LFs weight blog
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Replies:
Posted By: noodle
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 6:31pm
I got some of those trays that ya freeze their food in (which have come in super handy now  ) and froze it in that, they are 25ml cubes (ovals really) and would just get out and defrost what i thought he would drink at a feed, I defrosted it in a bottle in the fridge and heated it in a glass jug of boiled water hope this helps  ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Snappy
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 6:44pm
| Ditto, I expressed and poured into an ice cube tray, then would put it into freezer bags. When it came to defrosting I would put it in a bottle and heat it in a glass jar also. |
Posted By: cuppatea
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 6:48pm
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I freeze in glad bags, when he was really little though I used the sterile medela ones.
Depends what I express out but I don't put more than 150ml in one bag as I hate to waste it. I have some smaller lots in ice cube trays so that if he drains the 150ml Dh can just defrost a cube or two. I think each cube holds about 30-40ml Thaw it by putting it in the fridge or if needed in a hurry then stand in warm water, stand it in warm water to heat as well, but I think he has normally transferred it to a bottle by then (I never do the EBM feeds). Definitely don't microwave EBM as it kills off good stuff in it.....that was very scientific of me wasn't it..lol ------------- 
 
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Posted By: sarahm
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 7:17pm
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Floyd is fed a mix of EBM and formula.
I no longer freeze as I need all I express now he doesnt b/f more than once a day, but when I did I used the avent bags and did some lots of 100mls and some of 50mls. I have just invested in a bottle warmer (only $30 on TM) as it can take forever to warm it in warm water! - and he has three bottles of EBM a day ------------- http://alterna-tickers.com">  
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Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 7:37pm
| Can someone show me a link to these ice cube trays?? I am planning on expressing as well as bfing, and this sounds like what I need to do...thank you!! |
Posted By: cuppatea
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 7:48pm
I just use ones I bought at countdown, nothing any different to what you would use for making ice cubes. They are handy for if you make your own solids as well as then you can puree up different vegetables in batches and then mix and match cubes to give them different dinners. Unless of course your baby is like mine and won't eat off a spoon and then you will do baby led weaning whether you like it or not
Once the milk is frozen I just pop the cubes out and put them in a glad box or bag so that other stuff from the freezer doesn't end up on them. -------------
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Posted By: baalamb
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 7:51pm
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1. What do you freeze your EBM in? Swisspers breast milk storage bags that you can buy from Countdown. A little pricey at around $11 for 20 but convenient.
2. What quantity do you freeze in one lot? Very early on, I was putting away 70ml lots. I figured that Madison would need at least 70ml at one feed and if she wanted more, I wasn't wasting too much if she didn't drink another full 70ml. Later on, I was putting 120ml away and she wasn't drinking all of that in one go. We were mostly using the expressed stuff to top her up with on those marathon feeding sessions where she just never seemed to be satisfied! We've run out of our freezer stash and I don't express any more. 3. How do you thaw it out? We thawed it in an inch of water in the sink. It doesn't take long to thaw so we'd thaw just one bag at a time. 4. How do you heat it up? In a jug of hot water. |
Posted By: lilfatty
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 8:13pm
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Thanks guys .. we are going to try our first bottle feed tommorrow morning. (fingers crossed he will be hungry enough not to protest too much)
Good idea on the ice cubes, cuppa, how does it work taking the cubes out and putting them in a bag or container, do they still stay in cube form? Do they not all get stuck together? We used to use our ice trays with Issys solids (now she would eat five ice trays worth of food! but I could invest in some different coloured ones to keep the milk seperate.------------- Mummy to Issy (3) and Elias (18 months) I did it .. 41 kgs gone! From flab to fab in under a year http://www.femininefitness.co.nz/category/blog - LFs weight blog
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Posted By: noodle
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 8:16pm
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These are what I use, when he was newborn before freezing the EBM i would sterilise them 1st aswell
http://www.kiwibaby.co.nz/afawcs0122065/SUBID=11/ID=591/SID=139503299/productdetails.html - http://www.kiwibaby.co.nz/afawcs0122065/SUBID=11/ID=591/SID=139503299/productdetails.html ------------- http://lilypie.com">
http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: cuppatea
Date Posted: 26 July 2009 at 7:27am
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Once frozen they stay in cube form, as long as they are fully frozen before you take them out they don't stick together. I take my cubes of frozen puree out as well and put them in pots/bags too so I can reuse the trays. Sometimes things stick a little bit but I can always just pull them apart with my hands, they don't get that bad that you have to smash them on the counter or anything.
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Posted By: lilfatty
Date Posted: 26 July 2009 at 9:17am
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clever! we ended up buying more cubes as we had more baby food than trays, I never thought to take them out and put them into something else! ------------- Mummy to Issy (3) and Elias (18 months) I did it .. 41 kgs gone! From flab to fab in under a year http://www.femininefitness.co.nz/category/blog - LFs weight blog
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Posted By: noodle
Date Posted: 26 July 2009 at 9:43am
lol then ya run out of room in the freezer from all the snap lock bags full of food they are super handy tho i have to constantly have new food freezing in the trays and transfering to the bags coz Rory is such a guts lol  ------------- http://lilypie.com">
http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: cuppatea
Date Posted: 26 July 2009 at 9:58am
Mine is sitting unused at the moment and might have to become soup cos my little guy has decided spoons aren't his thing, so we are doing all finger foods instead. Is so bizaar that he will open his mouth and quite happily try to eat anything but put it on a spoon and nope, even if it's the same food -------------
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Posted By: Tastic
Date Posted: 26 July 2009 at 9:54pm
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Id second the Ice cube trays for ebm and babys food :)
with the ebm I just pumped straight into bottles - but since I was still at the hospital I had endless supply. then they were either put into the fridge and at 24 hours old if they are still in the fridge they were frozen, defrosted in a jug - like a large juice container. which was filled with hot water |
Posted By: mum2paris
Date Posted: 27 July 2009 at 12:58am
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I pretty much second most things said here, i too didi the ice cube thing, ours held 10 mls so was good, i'd just take it out on the morning i needed it, chuck as many cubes in as i needed (ie, 50mls, = 5 cubes) into the actual sterilised bottle and pop it in the fridge to defrost.
The main thing to remember is you should not be adding warm milk to already cold milk,... ie pop it in ice cube trays as you go, don't chuck it all into one container adding throughout the day... it's effectively heating and cooling the milk all the time as expressed milk is body temp which can be kinda warmish. we always did the bags thing, i'd do a freezer bag for 1 weeks worth of milk cubes, then start a new one, each one dated so i knew which ones to use first. i also didi that with the baby food, had separate cubes of each vege and some of cooked pureed meat and i could just pop her dinner together by choosing which cubes i wanted, placing them in her bowl and standing the bowl in boiling water in the sink for a few mins. i did then be a bit naughty and nuke it in the microwave... but never nuked breastmilk ever. ------------- Janine and her 2 cool chicks, Paris & Ayja 
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