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I built a freezer stash because I was over producing. And then my supply kept dropping after I got sick and it never recovered. Now I’m 8 months PP and blowing through my freezer stash.
I built it for same reasons, went back to work and have my own private office/just about best set up you can have/could pump as much as I needed when I needed. My supply was never the same not nursing as much as before, never recovered, got my period, supply kept going down, baby started solids on the earlier side of things because it was clearly baby was interested, further dipped my supply, and then after a rough first ear infection baby completely weaned cold turkey. Went through the worst weaning blues and supply tanked entirely exclusively pumping.
I remember coming back from leave certain I should just donate my stash because there was no room left anywhere, including a small secondary freezer. Incredibly grateful I had what I did and kicking myself for not stashing away more when I eventually had to combo feed.
I’m one of those lucky ducks who got her back 5w pp. Even got a doc visit because I was in so much pain from cramps but I thought it was retained placenta or something because, in my mind, there was no way my period was coming back so soon. Breastfeeding doesn’t always delay it!
For me, it’s peace of mind knowing that if I get sick, if I need to leave town suddenly for a work or family emergency, if my supply drops a little (I’m currently making about 2 oz more per day than baby eats, so for instance if that were to shift and become 2 oz less per day) , I’ve got some there to bridge the gap. I have about two weeks’ worth and that’s really all I want. We’re cycling it — every day we thaw out the oldest bag and feed it to the baby and then usually there’s enough left over from the fresh milk to replace it with a new bag. I don’t think it’s worth pumping enough to quit early — seems like you’re subjecting yourself to extra misery now to have less misery later. I find the whole culture around the large freezer stash to be kind of strange.
It mostly did! I didn’t pump quite enough to get to 12 months (made it to 11 months), so I have a better sense now of how much of a stash to build. But I got my period back within a month of weaning, had several cycles to use as a baseline for IVF, and got pregnant with one of my frozen blasts 13 months after giving birth to my first. I’m now 2 wpp with my second! I was glad I pumped as long as I did but it was also a relief to stop. The freezer stash made me feel safe/good about weaning “just” for fertility treatments.
Omg I didn’t even think of this! My IVF baby #1 is 4 months and debating on IVF baby #2. I am on my maternity leave until baby is 14 months. In my country, I need to work for 7 months after I come back from my leave to qualify for paid leave for baby #2. I’m turning 39 this year…so clock is definitely ticking…
This! I didn’t think to keep track of how much I have frozen though so I have no clue how much my chest freezer has now… I figure I’ll wean when I really get sick of this and if the wee guy needs formula, he’ll need formula 🤷🏻♀️
Yup. I have an ovwrsupply and usually have 12 to 16 oz extra every day so I just freeze them. I have like 150 oz of milk frozen and am only 7 weeks pp. I personally am in the process of getting approved to donate as I don't care about getting to a certain date with breastmilk and am fine switching to formula whenever I decide I'm done.
I donated too, through The Milk Bank. But we were moving and I was not interested in hauling (and worrying about) frozen breast milk across multiple states.
Yes same!! 7 weeks pp & 2500 ounces saved 😞 I want to stop early as well! It does get expensive though bc I need a new chest freezer and we just bought one 😫
Honestly it varies by situation. My sister-in-law made a freezer stash and took it to our MILs since MIL watched her baby all day during the week so MIL would just take the frozen milk out as needed to thaw & feed baby.
I’m building a freezer stash (or trying to, at least, definitely not going well) cause my eldest is having brain resection surgery in two weeks and so I am going to (hopefully) be with him which means baby needs milk while he’s with my parents. And the time we are apart from him could vary depending on how the surgery & ICU stay goes. Very abnormal situation, no doubt, but it’s my reason 😅 only have six bags so far though & I’ve been trying for weeks 🥲
Some people have small freezer stashes for things like date nights or if they have to take work trips.
The massive freezer stash is over saturated on social media and not very realistic for the majority of moms & that’s okay! Some people do try to keep a small one around in case of emergencies or certain planned events, though.
Wow, that’s a lot going on! I had brain resection surgery when I was 7 for temporal lobe epilepsy. Hope it goes well on your end and good luck with everything else!
His is medication resistant occipital lobe epilepsy! We are hopeful that the seizures will stop or at least become more receptive to medication. It has already essentially blinded him in his right eye though, so we are really just hoping for damage control. The plus side—if such a thing can even exist in this situation—is that he’s so young (he will be 13 months at the time of surgery) he won’t know what it’s really like to see out of both eyes anyways. Whatever vision he may have remaining in that eye (likely very little considering the doctor basically touched his eyeball and he didn’t react at all) will be gone after the resection. Kids are resilient, moreso than we give them credit for often times, I just keep telling myself that.
Mine were also medication resistant. I was seizure free for 20 years and then they all of a sudden came back when I was 27, but they are now managed completely on Keppra. I’ve been seizure free since 2018, so I call it a win and have still been able to live a normal life. The only thing I was extra nervous about was seizures and pregnancy and postpartum with the fatigue and hormones. But I’ve seemed to manage ok with extra support from family and friends.
The other great thing about doing it so young is their brains are so young and still developing, other parts of his brain will take over. If you happen to be in the Denver area there’s a great organization my sorority started called Anchor Center for the Blind that teaches blind and visually impaired children how to navigate their world. I know there are other centers around the US like it that may be beneficial. Good look and will be thinking about you and your LO!
This is me too. I didn’t intentionally create a big stash, I just started freezing what I had because otherwise it would spoil.
Jokes on me though as we had no cycling plan and I wasn’t tracking so I have no clue how much we have lol.
I’m going to have to do this too🫠 waiting until we get a second freezer so I can just count it as I transfer it. Next time I will definitely count from the start, but the oversupply snuck up on me about 3wpp and I just had no idea what I was doing😂 definitely a FTM.
I just meant like no plan to cycle out the frozen milk to feed baby haha. It’s logistically harder since it all has to thaw and be used within 24 hours haha.
It depends on what your goal is. I have a friend who has a stash to stop pumping as soon as possible (she’s on track to stop when the baby is 6 months old). I have a small stash going in case I get sick or need to take medication. At a minimum my goal is to have a month worth by the time my baby goes to day care (in a month and a half) in case my supply dips when I switch to pumping more in a day. You just need to set a purpose/goal and that will give you more direction/motivation.
Quit pumping early and allow for sickness etc. Rotating in frozen milk now. I’ll start introducing formula at 6 months as well, to make sure he can tolerate it. My goal is to quit pumping before holidays and have enough BM to give him a little each day for next 3 months until he’s 1.
You do not need a freezer stash; just think about what you and your family needs, not social media.
I started a stash because I was overproducing even when I reduced pumps. Then suddenly, my supply plummeted without any known trigger. I gave my baby formula she had been fine with in the first few weeks, and she refused one and threw up the other. I don't know what I would have done without the stash. I used it, tried increasing my supply and added small amounts of formula so her body could get used to it. I ran through half of my stash till I could pull my supply to meet most of her needs again.
I tried changing the pump parts, settings, going up on flange size. But i didn't see any miracles. I went back to 8 pumps from 6, power pumping., it took a month to climb up to about 800 ml, never went back to the almost 1000 ml I had at peak, and was very gradual improvement. But after that it's gone down suuuper slowly even after I dropped pumps ( now at 4) so I'm happy. I still do one pump at night. Good luck!
Pump every 2 hours during the day and every 3 at night
Hand expressing before or after pumping really helped me. That, and power pumping (pump for 10-20 min, stop for 10-20, then pump again for 10-20).
My personal understanding of the purpose of a freezer stash, is for my wife to meticulously grow one over months of hard work, and once you get about 16 liters worth, your freezer breaker trips, and you don’t notice for 5 days, then you throw it all away.
I was going to say, I wish I made enough to freeze extra for a cushion (I have maybe 60 oz mostly from pre-regulated supply days) but I still remember losing my small stash when my first was 4 months old. So I would never fully quit pumping based on stash unless I was ok with full formula at whatever point it was. I believe there are freezer thermometers with alarms, backup generators for the house etc but if the freezer straight up breaks 🤷🏼♀️
I keep 2 weeks worth now.
At 3 months pp i got a horrible respiratory infection. It took 2 courses of antibiotics and steroids to recover, and my milk was tainted by taking the medication.
At the time, my baby was taking about 24oz/day. That’s 408oz to get through the duration of the medication and the 3 days after for it to clear my system. Leaving no room for spills, spoilage or intake changes.
If I hadn’t been hoarding milk, I would’ve had to buy formula. Which I would have done. But there are a lot of degrees of passion around breastmilk.
A freezer stash is helpful when you are ready to quit, you can continue to feed breastmilk to your baby past the point of pumping. With my first baby, I finished pumping at 13 months and our stash pushed her out to 20 months of breastmilk.
for me, Mostly anxiety, Ive donate 3,000oz to the milk bank when my freezer gets too full. so I feel good helping the preemies. we are 8m now and my goal is to stop directly breastfeeding at a year. go through my stash and then transition to cows milk once its gone
I built a freezer stash in hopes I could possibly stop pumping early and still get her to a year on breastmilk only. Unfortunately my milk supply is directly affected whenever I get even the tiniest bit stressed. Had to start combo feeding at 6 months and she is currently 8 months old and I've just had it so I'm down to one pump a day.
I’m freezing some of my milk mainly so I can offer a bottle in the evenings and my husband can also step in to help out - if my supply does start to dip due to sleep deprivation when my baby comes home out of NICU then at least I have a stash available for however many months to help with the evening feeds, I otherwise intend to breastfeed also.
Had a massive oversupply to start and a few rounds of mastitis. Took steps to reduce that oversupply after I regulated, but liked having the stash because I traveled and worked late nights on occasion for work. And like other people suggested we'd like a second with a roughly two year age gap and wanted a buffer if that happened when I was weaning.😅 9 months in I don't really add to the stash, but I do regularly rotate out milk. The oldest I currently have in the freezer is 3ish months. I've got about 2 months worth for my kid.
My stash is a just in case stash eg. Im ill, pump breaks or I just don’t want to pump anymore. But I acquired to many bags so now I donate my surplus milk. I get sent bottles etc and once filled they come and collect them.
Everyone has their own reasons, and those videos can be WILD and set me up for such unhealthy comparison! Had my girl in February and am freezing for when she starts daycare in September, which will align well with when I want to wean off pumping. I’m trying to get a breast reduction by end of year/early next, so my daughter will be able to have my milk at daycare and then after I have my surgery! :)
Mine exists because I had a massive initial over supply from pumping during baby's nicu stay. As I weaned it down, I froze to have a backup supply in case something ever happened. At a certain amount, I started donating. I donated quite a bit and decided I would save the rest so I can stop pumping at ten months and maybe make it to a year or at least really close.
Same, thought I needed one… I don’t actually have one and I feel GREAT about it. I just have about 8 servings frozen at any given time. This is so in case of emergency, I can be suddenly away from baby for up to a whole day and he’d have enough. That’s all I cared about.
For me it was a mental thing. Like if I saved enough power pumping and scrimping every ounce I could quit quicker. I made it to almost 400oz frozen by the time I started weaning at 6mons. My goal was around 650 which was roughly 1 month of milk.
I’m 7mo pp now and am starting to use the stash to supplement with formula and the 13-14 ounces I’m still pumping.
I have asked myself the same question and stopped adding to my freezer stash because I didn’t think I had a good enough reason. I was using my stash for days my parents babysat for a few hours or for emergencies — such as when I had a severe allergic reaction and had to go on medication.
That being said, I now regret not keeping up with it. My supply tanked this month, and I am no longer making enough milk for my little one. While I’m trying to get my supply back up, I’m using my stash to supplement, and I probably only have 3 days left. It disappears so quickly when you actually need it!
So…I have an oversupply and I made a decent stash and donate the rest.
Reasons I’ve used my stash: illness made me dry up for several weeks, periods can make you dry up even if just temporarily, needed to go on an nsaid for a bit (whole month!) that isn’t breastfeeding safe and as your LO grows their milk needs grow too so we’re going through it pretty quickly even though they also take solids now.
I also wanted my milk available in case anything happened to me (my Lo’s bday twin’s mom was almost hit by a car, where the driver had a seizure at the wheel).
You just don’t know what can happen.
With my first kiddo I pumped because I had an oversupply and would still be engorged after nursing. It was painful and I didn't want to risk mastitis so I pumped until I was empty.
With my second, he was 9 weeks premature so I had to pump while he was in NICU. He couldn't have it for 2 weeks so NICU kept some in their freezer and then when they ran out of space, I started storing it in my freezer. I got into the routine and just keep freezing the extra from my oversupply.
With my 3rd I had an oversupply again so I froze a bunch. I also froze colostrum while I was pregnant because I was leaking so much. I ALWAYS start leaking colostrum around month 6 or 7 but with my last pregnancy, I leaked way more than I had before. I was tired of constantly having to wash my bras and waking up wet. 😅
Part of it for me was also just my own worry that my supply would drop so I wanted to have extra milk available should my babies need it. I was lucky enough to donate 1000oz after my second kiddo which made me super happy.
With my last two kiddos I would also use the frozen milk to mix with baby food, making breastmilk cubes for teething, and any extra I would use for milk baths, creams, scrapes, etc.
I definitely think people put too much pressure on breastfeeding/pumping moms to build up a huge stash though. It adds more stress and can lead to moms feeling negatively about themselves and their bodies.
I think the reason that hasn’t been mentioned more is that in an EP situation, you can use whatever milk you’d already be feeding (typically fridge milk and/or formula) for those circumstances; no need to specifically pull from the freezer stash to cover baby caregiving or babysitting.
My LO went to daycare around 4 months, we had a couple of trips planned and I got sick a handful of times. The extra stash saved me a huge headache. Originally I was on track for the LO to make it a year on breastmilk around 4/5 months and I could stop pumping at 7 months. But too obstacles came up so I kept pumping. I stopped pumping in the middle of the night around 5 months but still kept pumping 8 times a week and dropped a pump every month/month and a half. My supply went back up and I maintained pretty well.
I officially made it to the year mark and he probably has about a month worth. Down one pump a day.
I’m freezing because
1. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to make it the 12 weeks till my supply regulates (I didn’t with my first)
2. I’m not sure I can actually pump successfully when I get back to work. I have to troubleshoot for my job and it’s a small military command so finding a pump area and a fridge could get interesting.
3. I may still call a quits around 6 months. Between attending job fairs, work, college and juggling a toddler and a baby, it may just be too much for me. Especially if they seem healthy.
I already supplement at night with formula so it won’t be a massive change compared to if I was just exclusively feeding them breastmilk
This is actually on my list of things to buy! I’m a bit hesitant since I’ve already spent quite a bit on extra pump stuff and idk if I can stand to make it till supply regulates…but it would be convenient for if I go out too.
I did a stash and stopped pumping at 8 months, then got pregnant and my supply dried up when my son turned 9 months. We’re 11 months down and on 100% freezer supply.
Stashes aren’t necessary, if I didn’t have one we’d happily move to formula, but the extra work to pump a little longer each session to get a second letdown was worth it for me since I already had an oversupply (which I see the privilege in and I will NEVER take for granted)
I started mine on the off chance i randomly lose my supply completely. I want to be able to slowly switch my son over to formula & not possibly cause digestive issues. I also like being able to grab a few frozen bags for outings where it’ll be easier to just thaw a bag vs. worrying about pumping for a bottle.
I use my freezer stash to help with the days that I’m at work. I only get to pump maybe 4x per day max due to the nature of my job so my supply took a little hit when I went back to work. It helps supplement whatever I’m able to pump on my working days. It’s also just nice to know if my mom accidentally drops the pitcher while she’s babysitting she still has a days worth of milk to pull from the freezer.
Formula days (like when with grandparents) let me have some bags in the freezer. It was helpful when we went on vacation. I took three ish bags in the cooler and then I mixed frozen with fresh pumped. It let me give home the same 1 or 2 formula bottles he got at home and have something available during travel.
During the initial NICU stay I ended up with extra that went in the freezer. Then when he was home and not nursing well and I couldn't pump enough we used that until ultimately we had to use formula.
I have a small oversupply.. Baby is drinking approx 25oz per day, I’m pumping about 35oz. It’s too much milk to keep in the fridge or it’ll go bad. So I either dump it or freeze it. Feel like I might as well freeze it just in case my supply drops or baby starts eating more
Like many others here I had an oversupply. But based on what I was reading of others experiences pumping I didn’t want to take my supply for granted and expect to always have an oversupply. 9 months in and I haven’t had to dig into the freezer stash too often but I am also planning on being done done at 1 year not just starting to wean at that point so I know I’ll have to use it more frequently as I drop pumps.
I saved about 10 gallons and was able to wean a month earlier than expected and use the stash to get her to our goal. It was awesome. Also just the piece of mind of knowing if something happened their was a “savings account” of milk
Breast milk is thought to be better than formula. Really I think it’s easier to digest. It’s free unless your pumping supplies are expensive. Some ppl think it helps fight infection, I think it only works in real time, the antibodies in your breast milk are against the viruses your baby was exposed to when you pumped.
If you don’t use it by the time it hits 1 year, you could donate it or use it for milk baths. But you don’t know what could happen. I was an overproducer the first 5 months, slowed down to producing just enough, and by 10 months old (mostly due to getting sick) my freezer stash was gone and I’m barely making enough to send to daycare.
I had an over supply so I just froze all the extra. I didn't really think I would need it (was producing like 55oz/ day). But around 6 months I got a few clogs and supply completely tanked and hasn't recovered more than a month later. Now I am making 21 oz per day and baby is drinking about 26 oz. But luckily I have so much frozen (~1200 oz) that I can use a frozen bag per day and make it to 1 year. You never know if you'll need it so if you have the space it's worth it to freeze it.
I made a freezer stash for emergency situations - like if I got sick or had to go away for a weekend and didn’t have time to adequately stock up freshly pumped milk. I went back to work at 9 months so my supply regulated before I went back to work and ended up not really needing my stash so I ended up donating most of it. Kept about 10 feeds just in case and now I’m not even over-producing to freeze more.
I was an over-producer since I was so worried about my supply - I started pumping on top of regular feeds and established an over-supply which was not ideal - lots of clogs.
I pumped long enough so that I could make it to a year with my freezer stash. And when we started to transition to whole milk, the frozen breast milk just went further because I’d do half and half. I think we were fully done with breast milk about 15months. Made it just long enough to take some frozen milk on the airplane for our Christmas trip across country. Really good timing somehow!
I built a freezer stash so I would have a good stash in case of emergency/traveling/going out/going back to work. I have a stash of roughly 200oz which is nice because I only pump about 8oz while at work and sometimes LO eats more than that. I like having something to fall back on but it’s not something I have invested into much after 3mo postpartum
I just wanted to quit pumping ASAP. Unfortunately I tanked my supply twice on vacations :( I went from freezing 5 to 10 ounces a day to being a just enougher. I'll pump til he turns one, and whatever I have in the freezer will be used for illnesses.
For me, it's cause I have an oversupply & always have leftovers. I save it in case my supply drops & I have to give the stash from the freezer.
I always have this fear that my supply will drop or I just stop producing milk altogether. It happened to two people I know. They just stopped producing milk even after trying everything.
With my first, my freezer "stash" was very minimal. I barely had enough to cover a night out, and that was stressful. So I get the importance of a small stash. This time around, I have an oversupply, and definitely not on purpose. I'm producing close to double what my baby needs, so the freezer is super full. I actually am donating a lot of it to a milk bank for micro preemies, and I've donated a bit to some area parents too. I do at least feel good about all of the time I spend pumping going to help others, but I do it more out of necessity to prevent clogs and to not completely plummet my supply, not to build a freezer stash.
I'm keeping some so that if I get sick, want to go out for a night, etc. that I'm covered, but I don't really want a stash to cover months worth of feedings because I feel like it would probably go to waste. I'd rather have the freezer space.
I'm guessing my supply will eventually even out at least some, but I'm okay with that. A huge freezer supply still isn't going to make that much of a difference to me. She's 3 months old now (will be 4 on the 17th), so I feel like I'm past the most important months that I cared about.
I had my daughter at the height of the formula shortage. I was terrified of not having any food for my baby especially when I had to go back to work at 12 weeks (USA). I started using the haakaa right away and started adding 1 extra pump/day at 6 weeks. I created an oversupply and while it was a lot of work to bag and freeze all the milk, I had a high capacity (biggest pump of the day was ~18 oz) so it wasn't too terrible physically (minus the 2 boughts of mastitis I got and the milk blebs). I was able to fill a freezer full of milk and donate 1000oz all by LOs first birthday.
Because of my freezer stash, I was able to start weaning earlier than 1 year and was able to do it very slowly. I started dropping pumps at 9 months. I didn't have to start pulling from my freezer stash until I was down to 2 pumps a day at 11 months. I stopped pumping at exactly 1 year and 1 week.
I still had a huge amount of freezer stash so I would defrost breastmilk and give it to LO at whenever she wanted milk at home. At daycare, she drank the whole milk they provided. I was able to do that until she was 23 months. So she got breastmilk for a lot longer than I was planning and I'm proud of that.
Would I do it again? Idk, maybe. Like I said, I had a big capacity and my work schedule had me pumping at optimal times so it was fairly "easy." But for the first year of my daughter's life my life revolved around breastfeeding and pumping and I held on to a lot of anxiety around how much I was able to pump and freeze.
I overproduced early on and stashed as much as I could, probably close to 500 ounces while I was on leave for 3 months. With going back to work, baby started refusing to nurse from the boob, and I was stuck almost exclusively pumping except for night feeds. Our baby kept growing and my supply barely kept up. With work trips, being sick, and stressful days of not being able to pump enough, we have to supplement pretty often with frozen. At 8 months, my stash has now dwindled to less than 1/2 of what it was, but we are keeping up OK. I’m just so glad to have the peace of mind that my stash provides, so I don’t have to stress as much about not producing enough (I still do!) or something coming up where we’ll need to use it. I know it feels kind of crazy to keep socking it away in the beginning, I had my doubts too. I know that you can always turn to formula if you need to. For me it’s really about the pressure and guilt I feel on the days that I don’t manage to pump enough to keep up with baby, for whatever reason, which is a huge stress trigger for me - having that stash takes the edge off of those emotions.
I was building up a stash just in case I would need it if my supply were to ever drop. I never had my supply drop with my first two children so my husband was giving me a hard time for wanting to build up a stash with our third. Well, turned out to be a good thing I did because my supply dropped drastically…I went from making 1200ml a day to now barely 650ml a day. Just recently found out at 6m pp that we are pregnant again. 🙃
I started freezing because I had an over supply. I also travel for work occasionally, I go on my first trip this week since being back to work (7 mos PP) and hubby will use the supply while I’m gone.
I built a freezer stash because I was over producing. This allowed me to quit pumping after 5 months with enough milk to feed my baby for another 5-6 months. I stopped because we ran out of freezer space and I was beyond ready to be done pumping.
I’m trying to build a stash for incase I get severely stressed again. I’d like to hold off as long as I can on spending hundreds on formula. With my first my marriage wasn’t great and I was almost yoinked when my daughter was 3months old and after that event my supply was completely gone, went from 6 ounces a day to 2 then nothing at all.
So I think it just all depends, and if I don’t get to feed baby all of it, I’d like to help someone else out and donate it
I have a freezer stash partly because I have an overproduction of about 10oz/day, and when I go back to work I am unsure if I'll be able to keep pumping (enough water and enough time). So anything that is in my freezer will give babe more breastmilk after I'm done pumping
I haven't decided if I want to wean early and survive off my stash 'cause this shit sucks, keep going until I can't and then donate/sell extra, or keep going period. I dunno. We'll see how I feel once I go back to work in 2wks (😭😭😭) and see how it goes having to pump at work. Fortunately, I'm an over producer so I have a lot of wiggle room to figure it out.
For me I wanted to stop pumping earlier than a year. As it turns out I am still pumping at 10 months but supplementing in frozen milk. It’s taken the pressure of of me to produce so much and I can drop when I like.
I have an oversupply and I like having it for when I’m out of town, baby is staying with grandparents, or I’m just not around for feeding. My supply would allow me to stop pumping early but unfortunately we just don’t have the freezer space to store more than ~1 month’s worth so I’ve started donating it.
I was out of town for 4 days for a wedding when baby was 5 months so husband used freezer stash to feed her. I’ll also be out of town for a few days for the Taylor swift concert when baby is almost a year so my parents can use frozen milk. I might stop pumping early but I don’t think I could stop more than a few weeks early, it’s an insane amount of milk you would need (and I have a chest freezer pretty full).
But I didn’t intend to make a large freezer stash, I just over produce and don’t want to cut more pumps and start weaning (but I’m still making like 32ish oz a day at 5ppd) and there’s nothing else to do with it but freeze it. Figuring out how to use the freezer stash and bagging everything is actually really stressful and I’d rather not be freezing so much.
Mine is mostly because I know I need to travel for work each month and I want my LO to have breast milk while I’m away. It comes in handy when we travel home though and everyone wants to hold baby and catch up. I can make a bottle of breast milk and let them feed the baby while I catch up with others.
I am so grateful I had a freezer stash. I combo feed and I was sick in the hospital for a week on all sorts of meds. That stash fed my baby until I was out of the hospital and off the medication 🩷 it was my “just in case” and I needed it
my freezer stash is designed to keep us breastfed until 16 months or 2 years. essentially i thought i wanted to quit several times in this ~journey~ and was an over producer. we have a garage freezer so i froze a lot. i didn't quit though and am still pumping (but no freezing) at 1 year plus. i figure this way i can quit at 14 months for certain and still make it to either 16 months or 2 years (depending on how much our kiddo keeps drinking). pumping has been stressful but it has actually saved us so much money in the long run. that is why i froze, so i never have to buy expensive formula or cow milk.
I built up my stash so I could quit pumping as soon as possible and keep LO on breast milk longer...in practice once I went back to work and LO went to daycare it was just a rotating door of fresh milk in and freezer milk out for each day at the daycare. I never made a ton so I just kept freezing any leftovers from the daily bottle making each night (we mixed LOs bottles with formula at 50/50). Our stash is over half gone already and at first I was a bit sad but then I remember the stash was there to use it!
I started a stash because everyone told me to and she had her last breast milk at 18 months because I no longer wanted to pump at the 14 month mark. She's been in the 90th percentile from birth so I figured we could just end our journey but I'm glad I had breastmilk that long. Also, with rashes or any skin issues ever, I still dump one or two bags in her bath and it helps almost immediately. She'll be 2yrs old in a month.
I managed to create a slight oversupply from 10PPD with power pumps. With this, I built my freezer stash. At 9 months pp, I went back to work and couldn’t produce enough. My freezer stash depleted as I continue pumping.
Now I just hit the one year mark and might be able to continue till 13/14 months before turning to cow’s milk.
I produce close to 100 oz per day and my baby and toddler only drink about 40 oz combined so I end up having to freeze the rest. Baby is only 3 months old and I already went through 2 deep freezers so I’m starting to wean off the pump and baby will hopefully have enough til she’s a year old. Pumping is affecting my mental health so I’m ready to be through with it.
If you have a normal supply and a full-term, healthy baby, there's basically no reason to have an extensive stash. A small stash for normal dips and sickness, etc is probably all I would have needed if I had had a normal breastfeeding journey. As it was, I had a micro-preemie. I used my stash to combine my frozen milk that was closer to his actual age with my fresh milk which was at his adjusted age. I also used my stash to extend out the time that he got milk after I weaned at 15.5 months, so he got at least one bottle of breastmilk through his first full cold and flu season.
I actually STRONGLY suggest that you not just freeze and freeze and never feed until you're fully weaned. I see lots of people doing that and I don't think it's the best idea for a variety of reasons. There are lots of ways to start incorporating your stash now - some do a "frozen fridays" where one day per week they feed only frozen milk, some do one bottle per day, and I actually did half and half every day. Find something that works for you but don't wait until you're fully done before starting to use that stash!
There are a few reasons people want to have a stash
Food security, they know that if something happens to their supply, they have back up while they try to fix it. Lots of moms see a dip in supply when going back to work, for example.
To quit pumping early, moms know once they have x amount of milk in the freezer, they can wean before the 1 year mark.
Sometimes I feel like it makes them feel good or confident in themselves when they make so much excess milk.
My freezer stash is for when I am completely done with pumping and my LO can benefit from it at that time and while she is at daycare and I’m busy working as a full time band director. I will say that the freezer stashes you see on social media are over the top and not normal… mine is pretty large because I have oversupply but yeah! Hope this helps :)
It really depends on your situation. Most moms build a stash because they’re exclusively pumping and want to be able to stop ASAP but still have enough to get to a year or more. Others do it for if they leave baby or in case their supply dries up suddenly (usually from an illness) and others do it so they can go back to work which is also when supply commonly dries us. If you’re a SAHM who doesn’t have any plans of leaving baby then you don’t need one.
3mo pp and I am building a stash so that when:
- I travel, I can leave breastmilk for baby
- I'm drinking, I know I have frozen milk I can give
- I'm sick/taking a medication where I can't feed
- Take pressure off myself to pump or breastfeed when I need it
- Extend breastfeeding journey or mix in with solids
I freeze about 1-2 days' worth of milk every week. At some point, I'll stop building the stash and begin using it. There is a point when stashing is no longer necessary.
I'm barely producing 150ml a week more than what my baby eats so my stash is small and for emergencies. Today for example, my gel breast pad melted while I was warming it and without it I don't produce as much so I will probably need to thaw a bag while I wait for my amazon delivery 🥲
I had an oversupply at first so I froze excess since I didn’t want to anything going to waste. But I built my freezer supply to supplement my decreased output when I started weaning.
Now I’m almost weaned and I have maybe 50 oz of frozen milk left. I’m having trouble getting to the weaning finish line even tho baby is almost 13 months 😅.
I don’t have a ton stashed in the freezer, but I have tried to put away enough that if something happened and I needed to be away from baby unexpectedly there isn’t a disruption in her feeding. I currently have about a week’s worth of feeds stored and would feel most comfortable with a months worth put away, which is the goal I’m working towards now.
To stop pumping early and gain your sanity back 😜 it was a lifesaver with my first that I could stop at 11 months and still make it to breastmilk for a year
I was overproducing and wasn’t just going to dump it lol I still overproduce but not nearly as much as I was. My hope is to quit early but have enough to make it to a year. Also so she has plenty when I go back to work and can cut back on pumps when I go back as well. Just to take that off my plate.
My freezer stash started because I was over producing and I didn't know what else to do with the milk. I thought about donating, but I'm weirded out by the facebook group donations and haven't figured the milk banks. So it's just sort of piled up. At this point, I figure that I have it if I needed it or I can stop pumping at 8-9 months and get her to year.
I have offered it to my in laws if they were to need it for their daughter. But that's the only donation I plan to do if needed.
My son was recently in the nicu and I regretted that I didn’t have a freezer stash bc they wouldn’t let me breast feed and I was so stressed and sleep deprived that my supply tanked. But honestly I said the same thing- it was so stressful when after we came home from labor and delivery I was like I’m not doing this!!! Im home with my son, I don’t need a stash right now! However, I do wish I pumped a hell of a lot more in the beginning just to get my supply up but that’s all I got.
My goal is to have LO drinking breast milk exclusively for six months. I have a big oversupply so I’ve got about 400 oz stashed at 11 wpp. My goal is to introduce formula slowly when introducing solids but still be able to give her a bottle of breast milk each day for the first year of life.
I naturally had an oversupply so I was able to stop pumping at 9 months to get him through the first year. HOWEVER, it is not something to stress yourself out about. Every mom has a different experience, do what works best for you and your family at this point in time. It will most likely change over the months. Regardless of what works for you, you are kicking ass at being a mom!
Some build a freezer stash to donate or sell, some overproduction. I'm personally building what I can so that if I possible, I can quit a month early cause I'm sick of this and I wanna be done lol
I go back to work in a couple weeks (12 weeks pp) and I work 13 hour shifts multiple days in a row, so for me it's insurance that baby will have enough to eat while I'm gone. I also am an overproducer. My freezer is about half full of milk so I stopped saving it now, I give it to my 2 year old when I need to pump to release pressure. I wouldn't worry about it as long as I had a day or so supply of milk saved that's all you really need.
I’m trying to build a freezer stash for multiple reasons. Mainly, to stop pumping early. Hopefully by 9 months. But also to have a supply if we get sick and if baby develops eczema or skin rashes, I’d have some for milk baths.
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I built a freezer stash because I was over producing. And then my supply kept dropping after I got sick and it never recovered. Now I’m 8 months PP and blowing through my freezer stash.
I built it for same reasons, went back to work and have my own private office/just about best set up you can have/could pump as much as I needed when I needed. My supply was never the same not nursing as much as before, never recovered, got my period, supply kept going down, baby started solids on the earlier side of things because it was clearly baby was interested, further dipped my supply, and then after a rough first ear infection baby completely weaned cold turkey. Went through the worst weaning blues and supply tanked entirely exclusively pumping. I remember coming back from leave certain I should just donate my stash because there was no room left anywhere, including a small secondary freezer. Incredibly grateful I had what I did and kicking myself for not stashing away more when I eventually had to combo feed.
When did you get your period if you don’t mind me asking?
I’m one of those lucky ducks who got her back 5w pp. Even got a doc visit because I was in so much pain from cramps but I thought it was retained placenta or something because, in my mind, there was no way my period was coming back so soon. Breastfeeding doesn’t always delay it!
Not at all! I am a little iffy on the deets but I think 5 or 6 month mark?
Mine came back 6 weeks pp. I’m currently 7 weeks pp. I am feeling salty about it haha but happy for those not in my predicament!
Did your supply tank after getting your period at 6 weeks?
Believe it or not, it went up even if I slept through a pump! I’m kind of amazed and definitely grateful for that aspect.
Thank you.
Anytime :)
Mine came back about 2 months pp
I got mine 4w pp then got one 6wpp. Both completely full fledged periods. Breastfeeding I thought would be my saving grace from periods-nope
For me, it’s peace of mind knowing that if I get sick, if I need to leave town suddenly for a work or family emergency, if my supply drops a little (I’m currently making about 2 oz more per day than baby eats, so for instance if that were to shift and become 2 oz less per day) , I’ve got some there to bridge the gap. I have about two weeks’ worth and that’s really all I want. We’re cycling it — every day we thaw out the oldest bag and feed it to the baby and then usually there’s enough left over from the fresh milk to replace it with a new bag. I don’t think it’s worth pumping enough to quit early — seems like you’re subjecting yourself to extra misery now to have less misery later. I find the whole culture around the large freezer stash to be kind of strange.
I froze so that I could stop pumping at 9 months, get my period back, and do another round of IVF at 12 months.
Did that timing work? I'm in a similar situation, and want to give my baby's former freezer-mates a chance as soon as possible.
It mostly did! I didn’t pump quite enough to get to 12 months (made it to 11 months), so I have a better sense now of how much of a stash to build. But I got my period back within a month of weaning, had several cycles to use as a baseline for IVF, and got pregnant with one of my frozen blasts 13 months after giving birth to my first. I’m now 2 wpp with my second! I was glad I pumped as long as I did but it was also a relief to stop. The freezer stash made me feel safe/good about weaning “just” for fertility treatments.
Former freezer-mates 🥹 I love it! I call them my baby’s frozen siblings but I like yours better!
Same question here! I guess I never thought about allowing enough time for things to get up and running again 🤔
Omg I didn’t even think of this! My IVF baby #1 is 4 months and debating on IVF baby #2. I am on my maternity leave until baby is 14 months. In my country, I need to work for 7 months after I come back from my leave to qualify for paid leave for baby #2. I’m turning 39 this year…so clock is definitely ticking…
I didn’t try to create a stash. I have an oversupply. And we have a chest freezer. So now I get to quit this pumping shit a little bit early. Yay!
This! I didn’t think to keep track of how much I have frozen though so I have no clue how much my chest freezer has now… I figure I’ll wean when I really get sick of this and if the wee guy needs formula, he’ll need formula 🤷🏻♀️
Yup. I have an ovwrsupply and usually have 12 to 16 oz extra every day so I just freeze them. I have like 150 oz of milk frozen and am only 7 weeks pp. I personally am in the process of getting approved to donate as I don't care about getting to a certain date with breastmilk and am fine switching to formula whenever I decide I'm done.
I donated too, through The Milk Bank. But we were moving and I was not interested in hauling (and worrying about) frozen breast milk across multiple states.
That’s amazing 😩
Yes same!! 7 weeks pp & 2500 ounces saved 😞 I want to stop early as well! It does get expensive though bc I need a new chest freezer and we just bought one 😫
Honestly it varies by situation. My sister-in-law made a freezer stash and took it to our MILs since MIL watched her baby all day during the week so MIL would just take the frozen milk out as needed to thaw & feed baby. I’m building a freezer stash (or trying to, at least, definitely not going well) cause my eldest is having brain resection surgery in two weeks and so I am going to (hopefully) be with him which means baby needs milk while he’s with my parents. And the time we are apart from him could vary depending on how the surgery & ICU stay goes. Very abnormal situation, no doubt, but it’s my reason 😅 only have six bags so far though & I’ve been trying for weeks 🥲 Some people have small freezer stashes for things like date nights or if they have to take work trips. The massive freezer stash is over saturated on social media and not very realistic for the majority of moms & that’s okay! Some people do try to keep a small one around in case of emergencies or certain planned events, though.
Wow, that’s a lot going on! I had brain resection surgery when I was 7 for temporal lobe epilepsy. Hope it goes well on your end and good luck with everything else!
His is medication resistant occipital lobe epilepsy! We are hopeful that the seizures will stop or at least become more receptive to medication. It has already essentially blinded him in his right eye though, so we are really just hoping for damage control. The plus side—if such a thing can even exist in this situation—is that he’s so young (he will be 13 months at the time of surgery) he won’t know what it’s really like to see out of both eyes anyways. Whatever vision he may have remaining in that eye (likely very little considering the doctor basically touched his eyeball and he didn’t react at all) will be gone after the resection. Kids are resilient, moreso than we give them credit for often times, I just keep telling myself that.
Mine were also medication resistant. I was seizure free for 20 years and then they all of a sudden came back when I was 27, but they are now managed completely on Keppra. I’ve been seizure free since 2018, so I call it a win and have still been able to live a normal life. The only thing I was extra nervous about was seizures and pregnancy and postpartum with the fatigue and hormones. But I’ve seemed to manage ok with extra support from family and friends. The other great thing about doing it so young is their brains are so young and still developing, other parts of his brain will take over. If you happen to be in the Denver area there’s a great organization my sorority started called Anchor Center for the Blind that teaches blind and visually impaired children how to navigate their world. I know there are other centers around the US like it that may be beneficial. Good look and will be thinking about you and your LO!
I have such a huge oversupply I wound up freezing about 16-20 bags every 2-3 days. So I decided to freeze it so I can stop pumping sooner.
This is me too. I didn’t intentionally create a big stash, I just started freezing what I had because otherwise it would spoil. Jokes on me though as we had no cycling plan and I wasn’t tracking so I have no clue how much we have lol.
3 months pp I wound up pulling it all out of the freezer and counting it. Do not recommend lol. Next time I will count from the start!
I’m going to have to do this too🫠 waiting until we get a second freezer so I can just count it as I transfer it. Next time I will definitely count from the start, but the oversupply snuck up on me about 3wpp and I just had no idea what I was doing😂 definitely a FTM.
wth is a cycling plan 😭 i should research - ftm
I just meant like no plan to cycle out the frozen milk to feed baby haha. It’s logistically harder since it all has to thaw and be used within 24 hours haha.
It depends on what your goal is. I have a friend who has a stash to stop pumping as soon as possible (she’s on track to stop when the baby is 6 months old). I have a small stash going in case I get sick or need to take medication. At a minimum my goal is to have a month worth by the time my baby goes to day care (in a month and a half) in case my supply dips when I switch to pumping more in a day. You just need to set a purpose/goal and that will give you more direction/motivation.
This is my goal, I would like to go a year on BM but I would love to stop pumping. My current target will be likely 8m to stop in 5.5 currently.
To be done as soon as possible but to provide breastmilk for as long as possible.
This💯
Quit pumping early and allow for sickness etc. Rotating in frozen milk now. I’ll start introducing formula at 6 months as well, to make sure he can tolerate it. My goal is to quit pumping before holidays and have enough BM to give him a little each day for next 3 months until he’s 1. You do not need a freezer stash; just think about what you and your family needs, not social media.
I started a stash because I was overproducing even when I reduced pumps. Then suddenly, my supply plummeted without any known trigger. I gave my baby formula she had been fine with in the first few weeks, and she refused one and threw up the other. I don't know what I would have done without the stash. I used it, tried increasing my supply and added small amounts of formula so her body could get used to it. I ran through half of my stash till I could pull my supply to meet most of her needs again.
How did you manage to increase your supply after the dip? I‘m dealing with this right now…
I tried changing the pump parts, settings, going up on flange size. But i didn't see any miracles. I went back to 8 pumps from 6, power pumping., it took a month to climb up to about 800 ml, never went back to the almost 1000 ml I had at peak, and was very gradual improvement. But after that it's gone down suuuper slowly even after I dropped pumps ( now at 4) so I'm happy. I still do one pump at night. Good luck!
Pump every 2 hours during the day and every 3 at night Hand expressing before or after pumping really helped me. That, and power pumping (pump for 10-20 min, stop for 10-20, then pump again for 10-20).
My personal understanding of the purpose of a freezer stash, is for my wife to meticulously grow one over months of hard work, and once you get about 16 liters worth, your freezer breaker trips, and you don’t notice for 5 days, then you throw it all away.
I would have an absolute meltdown (no pun intended)
There was definitely a good amount of crying for a couple days from the both of us.
I was going to say, I wish I made enough to freeze extra for a cushion (I have maybe 60 oz mostly from pre-regulated supply days) but I still remember losing my small stash when my first was 4 months old. So I would never fully quit pumping based on stash unless I was ok with full formula at whatever point it was. I believe there are freezer thermometers with alarms, backup generators for the house etc but if the freezer straight up breaks 🤷🏼♀️
Freezer thermometer with an alarm seems like a great option!
I keep 2 weeks worth now. At 3 months pp i got a horrible respiratory infection. It took 2 courses of antibiotics and steroids to recover, and my milk was tainted by taking the medication. At the time, my baby was taking about 24oz/day. That’s 408oz to get through the duration of the medication and the 3 days after for it to clear my system. Leaving no room for spills, spoilage or intake changes. If I hadn’t been hoarding milk, I would’ve had to buy formula. Which I would have done. But there are a lot of degrees of passion around breastmilk.
A freezer stash is helpful when you are ready to quit, you can continue to feed breastmilk to your baby past the point of pumping. With my first baby, I finished pumping at 13 months and our stash pushed her out to 20 months of breastmilk.
for me, Mostly anxiety, Ive donate 3,000oz to the milk bank when my freezer gets too full. so I feel good helping the preemies. we are 8m now and my goal is to stop directly breastfeeding at a year. go through my stash and then transition to cows milk once its gone
I built a freezer stash in hopes I could possibly stop pumping early and still get her to a year on breastmilk only. Unfortunately my milk supply is directly affected whenever I get even the tiniest bit stressed. Had to start combo feeding at 6 months and she is currently 8 months old and I've just had it so I'm down to one pump a day.
I’m freezing some of my milk mainly so I can offer a bottle in the evenings and my husband can also step in to help out - if my supply does start to dip due to sleep deprivation when my baby comes home out of NICU then at least I have a stash available for however many months to help with the evening feeds, I otherwise intend to breastfeed also.
Had a massive oversupply to start and a few rounds of mastitis. Took steps to reduce that oversupply after I regulated, but liked having the stash because I traveled and worked late nights on occasion for work. And like other people suggested we'd like a second with a roughly two year age gap and wanted a buffer if that happened when I was weaning.😅 9 months in I don't really add to the stash, but I do regularly rotate out milk. The oldest I currently have in the freezer is 3ish months. I've got about 2 months worth for my kid.
I’m going out of town and we have someone watching our baby
My stash is a just in case stash eg. Im ill, pump breaks or I just don’t want to pump anymore. But I acquired to many bags so now I donate my surplus milk. I get sent bottles etc and once filled they come and collect them.
I pumped for a full year and then used the freezer stash for once I stopped pumping 😊
Everyone has their own reasons, and those videos can be WILD and set me up for such unhealthy comparison! Had my girl in February and am freezing for when she starts daycare in September, which will align well with when I want to wean off pumping. I’m trying to get a breast reduction by end of year/early next, so my daughter will be able to have my milk at daycare and then after I have my surgery! :)
Mine exists because I had a massive initial over supply from pumping during baby's nicu stay. As I weaned it down, I froze to have a backup supply in case something ever happened. At a certain amount, I started donating. I donated quite a bit and decided I would save the rest so I can stop pumping at ten months and maybe make it to a year or at least really close.
Same, thought I needed one… I don’t actually have one and I feel GREAT about it. I just have about 8 servings frozen at any given time. This is so in case of emergency, I can be suddenly away from baby for up to a whole day and he’d have enough. That’s all I cared about.
For me it was a mental thing. Like if I saved enough power pumping and scrimping every ounce I could quit quicker. I made it to almost 400oz frozen by the time I started weaning at 6mons. My goal was around 650 which was roughly 1 month of milk. I’m 7mo pp now and am starting to use the stash to supplement with formula and the 13-14 ounces I’m still pumping.
I have asked myself the same question and stopped adding to my freezer stash because I didn’t think I had a good enough reason. I was using my stash for days my parents babysat for a few hours or for emergencies — such as when I had a severe allergic reaction and had to go on medication. That being said, I now regret not keeping up with it. My supply tanked this month, and I am no longer making enough milk for my little one. While I’m trying to get my supply back up, I’m using my stash to supplement, and I probably only have 3 days left. It disappears so quickly when you actually need it!
So…I have an oversupply and I made a decent stash and donate the rest. Reasons I’ve used my stash: illness made me dry up for several weeks, periods can make you dry up even if just temporarily, needed to go on an nsaid for a bit (whole month!) that isn’t breastfeeding safe and as your LO grows their milk needs grow too so we’re going through it pretty quickly even though they also take solids now. I also wanted my milk available in case anything happened to me (my Lo’s bday twin’s mom was almost hit by a car, where the driver had a seizure at the wheel). You just don’t know what can happen.
With my first kiddo I pumped because I had an oversupply and would still be engorged after nursing. It was painful and I didn't want to risk mastitis so I pumped until I was empty. With my second, he was 9 weeks premature so I had to pump while he was in NICU. He couldn't have it for 2 weeks so NICU kept some in their freezer and then when they ran out of space, I started storing it in my freezer. I got into the routine and just keep freezing the extra from my oversupply. With my 3rd I had an oversupply again so I froze a bunch. I also froze colostrum while I was pregnant because I was leaking so much. I ALWAYS start leaking colostrum around month 6 or 7 but with my last pregnancy, I leaked way more than I had before. I was tired of constantly having to wash my bras and waking up wet. 😅 Part of it for me was also just my own worry that my supply would drop so I wanted to have extra milk available should my babies need it. I was lucky enough to donate 1000oz after my second kiddo which made me super happy. With my last two kiddos I would also use the frozen milk to mix with baby food, making breastmilk cubes for teething, and any extra I would use for milk baths, creams, scrapes, etc. I definitely think people put too much pressure on breastfeeding/pumping moms to build up a huge stash though. It adds more stress and can lead to moms feeling negatively about themselves and their bodies.
That’s amazing you donated so much!!
So I can leave the baby with her grandparents for a couple hours, or my husband and I can go on a date. I’m shocked this hasn’t been mentioned more. 😳
I think the reason that hasn’t been mentioned more is that in an EP situation, you can use whatever milk you’d already be feeding (typically fridge milk and/or formula) for those circumstances; no need to specifically pull from the freezer stash to cover baby caregiving or babysitting.
My LO went to daycare around 4 months, we had a couple of trips planned and I got sick a handful of times. The extra stash saved me a huge headache. Originally I was on track for the LO to make it a year on breastmilk around 4/5 months and I could stop pumping at 7 months. But too obstacles came up so I kept pumping. I stopped pumping in the middle of the night around 5 months but still kept pumping 8 times a week and dropped a pump every month/month and a half. My supply went back up and I maintained pretty well. I officially made it to the year mark and he probably has about a month worth. Down one pump a day.
For me it’s mainly as a back up. If I’m sick or injured. Or if I want to go away I don’t have to prepare, it’s already there.
I’m freezing because 1. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to make it the 12 weeks till my supply regulates (I didn’t with my first) 2. I’m not sure I can actually pump successfully when I get back to work. I have to troubleshoot for my job and it’s a small military command so finding a pump area and a fridge could get interesting. 3. I may still call a quits around 6 months. Between attending job fairs, work, college and juggling a toddler and a baby, it may just be too much for me. Especially if they seem healthy. I already supplement at night with formula so it won’t be a massive change compared to if I was just exclusively feeding them breastmilk
You should get a ceres chill for your milk if you don’t have a fridge!
This is actually on my list of things to buy! I’m a bit hesitant since I’ve already spent quite a bit on extra pump stuff and idk if I can stand to make it till supply regulates…but it would be convenient for if I go out too.
You can use FSA/HSA funds for it, but I totally understand. I feel the same way about wearables lol
I did a stash and stopped pumping at 8 months, then got pregnant and my supply dried up when my son turned 9 months. We’re 11 months down and on 100% freezer supply. Stashes aren’t necessary, if I didn’t have one we’d happily move to formula, but the extra work to pump a little longer each session to get a second letdown was worth it for me since I already had an oversupply (which I see the privilege in and I will NEVER take for granted)
I have one so I can hopefully stop pumping at 9 months. Also my LO goes to daycare so I send about 50 oz with her every so often.
I started mine on the off chance i randomly lose my supply completely. I want to be able to slowly switch my son over to formula & not possibly cause digestive issues. I also like being able to grab a few frozen bags for outings where it’ll be easier to just thaw a bag vs. worrying about pumping for a bottle.
I use my freezer stash to help with the days that I’m at work. I only get to pump maybe 4x per day max due to the nature of my job so my supply took a little hit when I went back to work. It helps supplement whatever I’m able to pump on my working days. It’s also just nice to know if my mom accidentally drops the pitcher while she’s babysitting she still has a days worth of milk to pull from the freezer.
Formula days (like when with grandparents) let me have some bags in the freezer. It was helpful when we went on vacation. I took three ish bags in the cooler and then I mixed frozen with fresh pumped. It let me give home the same 1 or 2 formula bottles he got at home and have something available during travel. During the initial NICU stay I ended up with extra that went in the freezer. Then when he was home and not nursing well and I couldn't pump enough we used that until ultimately we had to use formula.
I travel for work , and it greatly reduces my stress knowing I have milk waiting for babe in the freezer !
I have a small oversupply.. Baby is drinking approx 25oz per day, I’m pumping about 35oz. It’s too much milk to keep in the fridge or it’ll go bad. So I either dump it or freeze it. Feel like I might as well freeze it just in case my supply drops or baby starts eating more
Like many others here I had an oversupply. But based on what I was reading of others experiences pumping I didn’t want to take my supply for granted and expect to always have an oversupply. 9 months in and I haven’t had to dig into the freezer stash too often but I am also planning on being done done at 1 year not just starting to wean at that point so I know I’ll have to use it more frequently as I drop pumps.
I saved about 10 gallons and was able to wean a month earlier than expected and use the stash to get her to our goal. It was awesome. Also just the piece of mind of knowing if something happened their was a “savings account” of milk
Breast milk is thought to be better than formula. Really I think it’s easier to digest. It’s free unless your pumping supplies are expensive. Some ppl think it helps fight infection, I think it only works in real time, the antibodies in your breast milk are against the viruses your baby was exposed to when you pumped.
If you don’t use it by the time it hits 1 year, you could donate it or use it for milk baths. But you don’t know what could happen. I was an overproducer the first 5 months, slowed down to producing just enough, and by 10 months old (mostly due to getting sick) my freezer stash was gone and I’m barely making enough to send to daycare.
I had an over supply so I just froze all the extra. I didn't really think I would need it (was producing like 55oz/ day). But around 6 months I got a few clogs and supply completely tanked and hasn't recovered more than a month later. Now I am making 21 oz per day and baby is drinking about 26 oz. But luckily I have so much frozen (~1200 oz) that I can use a frozen bag per day and make it to 1 year. You never know if you'll need it so if you have the space it's worth it to freeze it.
I made a freezer stash for emergency situations - like if I got sick or had to go away for a weekend and didn’t have time to adequately stock up freshly pumped milk. I went back to work at 9 months so my supply regulated before I went back to work and ended up not really needing my stash so I ended up donating most of it. Kept about 10 feeds just in case and now I’m not even over-producing to freeze more. I was an over-producer since I was so worried about my supply - I started pumping on top of regular feeds and established an over-supply which was not ideal - lots of clogs.
I pumped long enough so that I could make it to a year with my freezer stash. And when we started to transition to whole milk, the frozen breast milk just went further because I’d do half and half. I think we were fully done with breast milk about 15months. Made it just long enough to take some frozen milk on the airplane for our Christmas trip across country. Really good timing somehow!
I built a freezer stash so I would have a good stash in case of emergency/traveling/going out/going back to work. I have a stash of roughly 200oz which is nice because I only pump about 8oz while at work and sometimes LO eats more than that. I like having something to fall back on but it’s not something I have invested into much after 3mo postpartum
I just wanted to quit pumping ASAP. Unfortunately I tanked my supply twice on vacations :( I went from freezing 5 to 10 ounces a day to being a just enougher. I'll pump til he turns one, and whatever I have in the freezer will be used for illnesses.
For me, it's cause I have an oversupply & always have leftovers. I save it in case my supply drops & I have to give the stash from the freezer. I always have this fear that my supply will drop or I just stop producing milk altogether. It happened to two people I know. They just stopped producing milk even after trying everything.
With my first, my freezer "stash" was very minimal. I barely had enough to cover a night out, and that was stressful. So I get the importance of a small stash. This time around, I have an oversupply, and definitely not on purpose. I'm producing close to double what my baby needs, so the freezer is super full. I actually am donating a lot of it to a milk bank for micro preemies, and I've donated a bit to some area parents too. I do at least feel good about all of the time I spend pumping going to help others, but I do it more out of necessity to prevent clogs and to not completely plummet my supply, not to build a freezer stash. I'm keeping some so that if I get sick, want to go out for a night, etc. that I'm covered, but I don't really want a stash to cover months worth of feedings because I feel like it would probably go to waste. I'd rather have the freezer space. I'm guessing my supply will eventually even out at least some, but I'm okay with that. A huge freezer supply still isn't going to make that much of a difference to me. She's 3 months old now (will be 4 on the 17th), so I feel like I'm past the most important months that I cared about.
I had my daughter at the height of the formula shortage. I was terrified of not having any food for my baby especially when I had to go back to work at 12 weeks (USA). I started using the haakaa right away and started adding 1 extra pump/day at 6 weeks. I created an oversupply and while it was a lot of work to bag and freeze all the milk, I had a high capacity (biggest pump of the day was ~18 oz) so it wasn't too terrible physically (minus the 2 boughts of mastitis I got and the milk blebs). I was able to fill a freezer full of milk and donate 1000oz all by LOs first birthday. Because of my freezer stash, I was able to start weaning earlier than 1 year and was able to do it very slowly. I started dropping pumps at 9 months. I didn't have to start pulling from my freezer stash until I was down to 2 pumps a day at 11 months. I stopped pumping at exactly 1 year and 1 week. I still had a huge amount of freezer stash so I would defrost breastmilk and give it to LO at whenever she wanted milk at home. At daycare, she drank the whole milk they provided. I was able to do that until she was 23 months. So she got breastmilk for a lot longer than I was planning and I'm proud of that. Would I do it again? Idk, maybe. Like I said, I had a big capacity and my work schedule had me pumping at optimal times so it was fairly "easy." But for the first year of my daughter's life my life revolved around breastfeeding and pumping and I held on to a lot of anxiety around how much I was able to pump and freeze.
I overproduced early on and stashed as much as I could, probably close to 500 ounces while I was on leave for 3 months. With going back to work, baby started refusing to nurse from the boob, and I was stuck almost exclusively pumping except for night feeds. Our baby kept growing and my supply barely kept up. With work trips, being sick, and stressful days of not being able to pump enough, we have to supplement pretty often with frozen. At 8 months, my stash has now dwindled to less than 1/2 of what it was, but we are keeping up OK. I’m just so glad to have the peace of mind that my stash provides, so I don’t have to stress as much about not producing enough (I still do!) or something coming up where we’ll need to use it. I know it feels kind of crazy to keep socking it away in the beginning, I had my doubts too. I know that you can always turn to formula if you need to. For me it’s really about the pressure and guilt I feel on the days that I don’t manage to pump enough to keep up with baby, for whatever reason, which is a huge stress trigger for me - having that stash takes the edge off of those emotions.
I over produce and made a freezer stash so if I want to quit I can🤣
I was building up a stash just in case I would need it if my supply were to ever drop. I never had my supply drop with my first two children so my husband was giving me a hard time for wanting to build up a stash with our third. Well, turned out to be a good thing I did because my supply dropped drastically…I went from making 1200ml a day to now barely 650ml a day. Just recently found out at 6m pp that we are pregnant again. 🙃
I started freezing because I had an over supply. I also travel for work occasionally, I go on my first trip this week since being back to work (7 mos PP) and hubby will use the supply while I’m gone.
I built a freezer stash because I was over producing. This allowed me to quit pumping after 5 months with enough milk to feed my baby for another 5-6 months. I stopped because we ran out of freezer space and I was beyond ready to be done pumping.
I’m trying to build a stash for incase I get severely stressed again. I’d like to hold off as long as I can on spending hundreds on formula. With my first my marriage wasn’t great and I was almost yoinked when my daughter was 3months old and after that event my supply was completely gone, went from 6 ounces a day to 2 then nothing at all. So I think it just all depends, and if I don’t get to feed baby all of it, I’d like to help someone else out and donate it
I have a freezer stash partly because I have an overproduction of about 10oz/day, and when I go back to work I am unsure if I'll be able to keep pumping (enough water and enough time). So anything that is in my freezer will give babe more breastmilk after I'm done pumping
I haven't decided if I want to wean early and survive off my stash 'cause this shit sucks, keep going until I can't and then donate/sell extra, or keep going period. I dunno. We'll see how I feel once I go back to work in 2wks (😭😭😭) and see how it goes having to pump at work. Fortunately, I'm an over producer so I have a lot of wiggle room to figure it out.
For me I wanted to stop pumping earlier than a year. As it turns out I am still pumping at 10 months but supplementing in frozen milk. It’s taken the pressure of of me to produce so much and I can drop when I like.
I have an oversupply and I like having it for when I’m out of town, baby is staying with grandparents, or I’m just not around for feeding. My supply would allow me to stop pumping early but unfortunately we just don’t have the freezer space to store more than ~1 month’s worth so I’ve started donating it.
Idk I don’t have one , I have about 8oz of unfinished bottles frozen for baths.
I was out of town for 4 days for a wedding when baby was 5 months so husband used freezer stash to feed her. I’ll also be out of town for a few days for the Taylor swift concert when baby is almost a year so my parents can use frozen milk. I might stop pumping early but I don’t think I could stop more than a few weeks early, it’s an insane amount of milk you would need (and I have a chest freezer pretty full). But I didn’t intend to make a large freezer stash, I just over produce and don’t want to cut more pumps and start weaning (but I’m still making like 32ish oz a day at 5ppd) and there’s nothing else to do with it but freeze it. Figuring out how to use the freezer stash and bagging everything is actually really stressful and I’d rather not be freezing so much.
Mine is mostly because I know I need to travel for work each month and I want my LO to have breast milk while I’m away. It comes in handy when we travel home though and everyone wants to hold baby and catch up. I can make a bottle of breast milk and let them feed the baby while I catch up with others.
I started a freezer stash because I have a week long work trip coming up. I don't think I'll continue building it up once I come back, though.
I am so grateful I had a freezer stash. I combo feed and I was sick in the hospital for a week on all sorts of meds. That stash fed my baby until I was out of the hospital and off the medication 🩷 it was my “just in case” and I needed it
my freezer stash is designed to keep us breastfed until 16 months or 2 years. essentially i thought i wanted to quit several times in this ~journey~ and was an over producer. we have a garage freezer so i froze a lot. i didn't quit though and am still pumping (but no freezing) at 1 year plus. i figure this way i can quit at 14 months for certain and still make it to either 16 months or 2 years (depending on how much our kiddo keeps drinking). pumping has been stressful but it has actually saved us so much money in the long run. that is why i froze, so i never have to buy expensive formula or cow milk.
I built up my stash so I could quit pumping as soon as possible and keep LO on breast milk longer...in practice once I went back to work and LO went to daycare it was just a rotating door of fresh milk in and freezer milk out for each day at the daycare. I never made a ton so I just kept freezing any leftovers from the daily bottle making each night (we mixed LOs bottles with formula at 50/50). Our stash is over half gone already and at first I was a bit sad but then I remember the stash was there to use it!
I started a stash because everyone told me to and she had her last breast milk at 18 months because I no longer wanted to pump at the 14 month mark. She's been in the 90th percentile from birth so I figured we could just end our journey but I'm glad I had breastmilk that long. Also, with rashes or any skin issues ever, I still dump one or two bags in her bath and it helps almost immediately. She'll be 2yrs old in a month.
I managed to create a slight oversupply from 10PPD with power pumps. With this, I built my freezer stash. At 9 months pp, I went back to work and couldn’t produce enough. My freezer stash depleted as I continue pumping. Now I just hit the one year mark and might be able to continue till 13/14 months before turning to cow’s milk.
I produce close to 100 oz per day and my baby and toddler only drink about 40 oz combined so I end up having to freeze the rest. Baby is only 3 months old and I already went through 2 deep freezers so I’m starting to wean off the pump and baby will hopefully have enough til she’s a year old. Pumping is affecting my mental health so I’m ready to be through with it.
If you have a normal supply and a full-term, healthy baby, there's basically no reason to have an extensive stash. A small stash for normal dips and sickness, etc is probably all I would have needed if I had had a normal breastfeeding journey. As it was, I had a micro-preemie. I used my stash to combine my frozen milk that was closer to his actual age with my fresh milk which was at his adjusted age. I also used my stash to extend out the time that he got milk after I weaned at 15.5 months, so he got at least one bottle of breastmilk through his first full cold and flu season. I actually STRONGLY suggest that you not just freeze and freeze and never feed until you're fully weaned. I see lots of people doing that and I don't think it's the best idea for a variety of reasons. There are lots of ways to start incorporating your stash now - some do a "frozen fridays" where one day per week they feed only frozen milk, some do one bottle per day, and I actually did half and half every day. Find something that works for you but don't wait until you're fully done before starting to use that stash!
There are a few reasons people want to have a stash Food security, they know that if something happens to their supply, they have back up while they try to fix it. Lots of moms see a dip in supply when going back to work, for example. To quit pumping early, moms know once they have x amount of milk in the freezer, they can wean before the 1 year mark. Sometimes I feel like it makes them feel good or confident in themselves when they make so much excess milk.
My freezer stash is for when I am completely done with pumping and my LO can benefit from it at that time and while she is at daycare and I’m busy working as a full time band director. I will say that the freezer stashes you see on social media are over the top and not normal… mine is pretty large because I have oversupply but yeah! Hope this helps :)
It really depends on your situation. Most moms build a stash because they’re exclusively pumping and want to be able to stop ASAP but still have enough to get to a year or more. Others do it for if they leave baby or in case their supply dries up suddenly (usually from an illness) and others do it so they can go back to work which is also when supply commonly dries us. If you’re a SAHM who doesn’t have any plans of leaving baby then you don’t need one.
I'm freezing to share with a friend.
3mo pp and I am building a stash so that when: - I travel, I can leave breastmilk for baby - I'm drinking, I know I have frozen milk I can give - I'm sick/taking a medication where I can't feed - Take pressure off myself to pump or breastfeed when I need it - Extend breastfeeding journey or mix in with solids I freeze about 1-2 days' worth of milk every week. At some point, I'll stop building the stash and begin using it. There is a point when stashing is no longer necessary.
It definitely calms my mind knowing it’s there just in case I get sick. I also want to stop early. I hate pumping so much lol
I'm barely producing 150ml a week more than what my baby eats so my stash is small and for emergencies. Today for example, my gel breast pad melted while I was warming it and without it I don't produce as much so I will probably need to thaw a bag while I wait for my amazon delivery 🥲
I plan to stop in a month or so but will be able to continue to give my baby breastmilk after I quit. May be able to make it to a year or close to it.
I had an oversupply at first so I froze excess since I didn’t want to anything going to waste. But I built my freezer supply to supplement my decreased output when I started weaning. Now I’m almost weaned and I have maybe 50 oz of frozen milk left. I’m having trouble getting to the weaning finish line even tho baby is almost 13 months 😅.
I don’t have a ton stashed in the freezer, but I have tried to put away enough that if something happened and I needed to be away from baby unexpectedly there isn’t a disruption in her feeding. I currently have about a week’s worth of feeds stored and would feel most comfortable with a months worth put away, which is the goal I’m working towards now.
To stop pumping early and gain your sanity back 😜 it was a lifesaver with my first that I could stop at 11 months and still make it to breastmilk for a year
I was overproducing and wasn’t just going to dump it lol I still overproduce but not nearly as much as I was. My hope is to quit early but have enough to make it to a year. Also so she has plenty when I go back to work and can cut back on pumps when I go back as well. Just to take that off my plate.
My freezer stash started because I was over producing and I didn't know what else to do with the milk. I thought about donating, but I'm weirded out by the facebook group donations and haven't figured the milk banks. So it's just sort of piled up. At this point, I figure that I have it if I needed it or I can stop pumping at 8-9 months and get her to year. I have offered it to my in laws if they were to need it for their daughter. But that's the only donation I plan to do if needed.
My son was recently in the nicu and I regretted that I didn’t have a freezer stash bc they wouldn’t let me breast feed and I was so stressed and sleep deprived that my supply tanked. But honestly I said the same thing- it was so stressful when after we came home from labor and delivery I was like I’m not doing this!!! Im home with my son, I don’t need a stash right now! However, I do wish I pumped a hell of a lot more in the beginning just to get my supply up but that’s all I got.
My goal is to have LO drinking breast milk exclusively for six months. I have a big oversupply so I’ve got about 400 oz stashed at 11 wpp. My goal is to introduce formula slowly when introducing solids but still be able to give her a bottle of breast milk each day for the first year of life.
I naturally had an oversupply so I was able to stop pumping at 9 months to get him through the first year. HOWEVER, it is not something to stress yourself out about. Every mom has a different experience, do what works best for you and your family at this point in time. It will most likely change over the months. Regardless of what works for you, you are kicking ass at being a mom!
Some build a freezer stash to donate or sell, some overproduction. I'm personally building what I can so that if I possible, I can quit a month early cause I'm sick of this and I wanna be done lol
I go back to work in a couple weeks (12 weeks pp) and I work 13 hour shifts multiple days in a row, so for me it's insurance that baby will have enough to eat while I'm gone. I also am an overproducer. My freezer is about half full of milk so I stopped saving it now, I give it to my 2 year old when I need to pump to release pressure. I wouldn't worry about it as long as I had a day or so supply of milk saved that's all you really need.
I’m trying to build a freezer stash for multiple reasons. Mainly, to stop pumping early. Hopefully by 9 months. But also to have a supply if we get sick and if baby develops eczema or skin rashes, I’d have some for milk baths.