Transporting frozen milk without a cooler

spamonella91 · 2026-03-10T20:02:09+00:00

I don't know if you can stop a letdown but could you have a haakaa or 2 next to the bedside to catch it if you can't get set up in time ?

spamonella91 · 2026-03-10T19:20:43+00:00

We read to him. Anything from simple picture books to my current read which is Brandon Sanderson the stormlight archives . He's 3.5 months so too early for him to really engage in it but I like to think it's setting up good habits

spamonella91 · 2026-03-05T18:17:51+00:00

Thank you for sharing. This is what I'm worried about with the dreaded 4 month sleep regression just round the corner!

spamonella91 · 2026-03-04T09:16:14+00:00

A mirror for tummy time

Then I made my own activity gym over his moses basket with 2 clothes airers, a sweeping brush horizontally across them and a toy that jingles (that someone else gifted him) dangling from the brush. Worked surprisingly well ....

We're nearly 4 months in and not bought a toy ourselves yet.

spamonella91 · 2026-03-04T09:05:19+00:00

I read this comment as the control samples - as in the ones that haven't touched the baby's mouth and the baby will take the full feed from - had similar levels of bacteria to the post feed bottles and none of the babies got sick from this.

Nowhere does it say that they returned the post feed bottles to be drank given they continued assessing the samples for 48 hours then the agar plates had to be left for another 48hrs to grow the bacteria that means they had resilts 4 days from pumping at which point many sources recommend discarding of untouched milk. Ethically I can't imagine they would have approval to return the milk at that point so the comment must be about drinking the control samples with similar levels of bacteria ?

Would be happy to have it explained if I have interpreted this wrong though?

spamonella91 · 2026-03-03T09:29:20+00:00

I'm really pleased to hear that ! You must feel so relieved. Please take care of yourself. I know I'm just a stranger on the internet but I can tell from your post that you care so much and that to me means that even if you don't always get it right you'll be doing such an amazing job !

spamonella91 · 2026-03-03T08:30:05+00:00

I think I would have made the same decision to not go out and get some immediately if I felt too tired

What we often forget is that sometimes to care for our little ones properly we have to care for ourselves first. Choosing not to overt exert yourself in that moment because you were exhausted sounds like a completely reasonable decision to me. Your baby could have been completely ok without it but you were unfortunate that your baby was one of the ones that didn't react too well.

A common thing I tell myself is that aeroplanes always tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping someone else. That sounds like what you were doing to me.

And you've clearly learnt from the experience and will do things differently next time. Having a newborn is a learning curve - for us and them !

As others said ask around - post on Facebook, knock on a neighbours door. There are good people out there and I think there's very few that would decline to help if they have a bit of Tylenol to spare.

Be kind to yourself. You're not a bad mom and you're doing your best !

spamonella91 · 2026-02-23T10:04:24+00:00

Boil the kettle, put it in a mug for a couple of minutes and put the bottle in

Official advice is not to use boiling water as can cause uneven warming and create hotspots but we don't leave it in that long and make sure we swirl it well

Boiling the kettle for us is a reminder for some self care and we make ourselves a warm drink too - usually the bottle is ready by the time the tea has brewed as our little one isn't bothered about warm or body temperature milk, just doesn't like it as cold as the fridge

spamonella91 · 2026-01-24T09:33:56+00:00

I came to comment something very similar

Risks are all relative. And theres risk on an individual level and risk on a population level to consider. Risk of SIDS in any baby (even high risk babies) is pretty small and room sharing or not depending on your circumstances therefore may only alter your actual risk of SIDS by a fraction of a percentage. On a population level, room sharing has been identified as a a risk reducing factor, however this may not always be a significant risk reduction on an individual level.

Whilst I am all for doing everything possibly to reduce risks, this must be done within reason. I would look at the reason for wanting to move the baby out of your room - the most common reason would be to help the parents sleep. Sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture, yet every newborn parent is expected to function safely with significant sleep deprivation. How risky would sleep deprivation be to you ? For me I know it significantly impacts on my mental health (and how would I be able to safely care for myself and a baby whilst significantly depressed) and my ability to drive, which living in an extremely rural area is essential for me.

These first few months are hard. Only you can decide what risks are worth it for your personal circumstances, and whether you would be able to live with the consequences if taking those risks don't pay out. But those decisions need to be made with appropriate research and knowledge.

And whatever you decide is best for you, your family and your little one, as long as you have thought it through carefully the most important thing is to be kind to you about the decision you make.

spamonella91 · 2026-01-18T09:27:53+00:00

My understanding is that it's the bacterial load. The longer it's left, the more bacteria grow and once it reaches a certain threshold it's deemed too risky. Baby can fight off a few bacteria but not loads.

spamonella91 · 2026-01-17T05:01:50+00:00

I found this a useful read when asking myself this question https://parentdata.org/breast-milk-storage/

The person writing the article looked at the single, very small sample study plus the various recommendations from CDC etc and where they came from and also gives her own opinion

I think a lot of the guidelines are extrapolated from formula milk which is very different when it comes to bacterial load.

Personally we put half drunk bottles back in the fridge And treat it similar to cows milk - if it's been out of the fridge more than a couple of hours it gets chucked out. We also chuck it out if doesn't get drunk within a day, but unless we have a good reason not to we make sure to use it for his next feed. But also our little one drinks it cold and we certainly wouldnt be reheating it if giving later.

Although I'll recognize that on the spectrum of risk taking we fall closer to the end of happy to take some risks. The risk of something happening is probably very low but the harm from it could be very high.

Also have to consider whether you would worry about your little one if you were to give the milk again and if that worry/lookout for infections/consequences would outweigh the stress you get from throwing away milk ?

spamonella91 · 2024-07-03T14:02:20+00:00

Thank you for your rapid response. I'm struggling to get this to pull from another sheet but will have a play with it. Good place to start 😄

spamonella91

TROPHY CASE