Any advice, tips or good info about expressing

[Elliott]

I want to start expressing so Maggie can have the odd bottle from her dad and to make it so I'm s but less tied to always being about for feeding. She's four weeks old now.

Bought electric avent pump yesterday but not used yet.

In clueless and a bit worried to do it. Firstly I've never had to sterilise a bottle or anything else really, how do people do this? What's easiest??

Secondly, when to pump?? Straight after a feed??

Finally, how much should u be trying to get??? I've no idea of quantities having only breastfed. If I use a bottle will age still just take what she needs? Or should I express a certain amount and then that's a portion???

Thanks for any help x

 

[kumber]

Always wash a bottle after use, or at least rinse out the milk, always sterilise before expressing into it.

If using a microwave or electric steriliser, always fridge all sterile items immediately upon opening the steriliser - the items start becoming unsterile immediately the air gets to them. Cold water sterilisers are tubs of sterile water - you pop a Milton tablet or fluid into a tub of cold water and it remains sterile for 24 hours. I personally recommend the cold water steriliser, it's much more convenient as you can sterilise as you go without a whole lot of faff and it's cheaper.

Expressed milk must be stored in a sterile bottle in the back of the fridge immediately after pumping.

What volume you're able to express depends on your boobies. I was able to express between 5-8oz between the two boobles in the first few days of expressing but other women express 3-4oz between the two. Both amounts are fab, every drop is an achievement so it just depends on how your boobs take to expressing.

When to pump depends on yours and LO's routine. Some ladies pump immediately after a feed, some pump in between, some do both. My only thing with pumping between feeds is that you can't be sure you're getting the hindmilk through, so I think a mixture of both types and then mixing the milk covers your back but don't take that as gospel as I'm really not 100% sure on that.

For how much to feed, offer a couple of oz first and if she finishes that, offer a couple more. Keep offering a couple of oz each time until she stops and that will give you a rough indication of how much she normally takes.

Finally, I strongly, strongly advise having someone else feed her the expressed milk for a good few weeks while you leave the room. If she can hear, see or smell you or your milk, she won't take the bottle and will likely become very distressed.

Have a look at the kellymom website and put kellymom in any searches you do in relation to this. It's an amazing website, full of info for express feeding.

Best of luck with it

 

[Elliott]

Thank you kumber!

 

[Rose83]

Hey. Don't want to confuse you or suggest that anything kumber said is wrong but my six month old became exclusively express breast fed at 9 weeks because of terrible thrush I had for two months. She was gradually taking less and less milk from me because I tasted bad. I never had a problem with her taking the bottle from me at all (I use the medela Calma test bottles which mimic the action they make when breast feeding). I actually had trouble at first getting her to take a bottle from my partner but not me!

Due to thrush I tried some cold water sterilising and it is pretty simple but it makes everything smell so chemically that I hated it. Only did it a while because apparently its the best thing for killing thrush. I use an electric steam steriliser and it's pretty simple once you do it so often you can do it in your sleep. Also while the lid is still on it everything is sterile. I've always just kept everything in there and not bothered with any of the putting it in the fridge business, my health visitor never recommended that and I'm of the opinion that if it's securely in the steriliser there isn't much that's going to contaminate it whereas a fridge has got all sorts in it.
Also Breast milk can be stored at room temperature for between 3 and 5 hours fine if you needed to but it's obviously better to keep in fridge if you can. In the fridge you should use it within 5 days (never store in the door but the rest of fridge should be fine) and in the freezer up to 6 months.

My top tips are to put some lansinoh cream on your nipples before beginning pumping (just a tiny bit) which cuts down friction and therefore how uncomfortable it can be. This is perfectly safe as a baby can go straight on a lansinoh covered boob. double pumping cuts down on time you need to spend attached. I started off by pumping immediately after she fed to get the excess (when she was still feeding from me) and now
I just pump at evenly spaced intervals throughout the day that don't conincide with her feeding schedule. X

 

[Elliott]

Thanks rose. I did read when looking yesterday that microwave ones stay sterile until opened do could still be a good option just need to see what will fit in our microwave.

Thinking I'd probably start by expressing after first morning feed and then maybe in evening once as well depending how it goes. Would kind of just like to be in the position of always having a fresh bottle in the fridge so I can always go out if I need to and or hubby can feed from time to time when it works out well. Also would like the option to use a bottle when out ideally just because I do give feeding in public a bit daunting and stressful :s

 

[Anna.Femm]

I used a miscowave steriser by Avent and I was really happy with it. We didn't take too much precaution however after a few weeks of my boy being born with setting the bottles in the fridge etc after getting them sterile (we don't have any animals in the house and never walk with our shoes in it so the level of pathogens was pretty low anyway). Also, what was most time consuming for me was washing the bottles before sterilising, making sure all the soap was gone etc. i wish my boyfriend would have done that for me, it would save me a huge amount of time.

I was over-eager and was pumping for about 30 minutes at a time and some of the best advice I got was to pump for only 10-15 minutes at each breast but do it more often, ie every 2 hours if you want to increase milk production. When I started I barely got 35ml from both breasts and after 10 (extremely tiring) days I got it up to about 700ml.

 

[TTT]

I have just started expressing so I can make porridge up with breast milk and I believe I have had a foremilk hind milk imbalance before. When the milk has been standing in the fridge and the fat has separated, what ratio would you say there is between the watery stuff and the fat? Iey stored milk has about 5% fat I would guess at?? I mean that there is about 10 ml or so of visible fat in 150ml of milk.

 

[Rose83]

I would say mine is probably about 20-30% fat. It's hard to tell though, at the moment I have a bottle in the fridge that has been in there since last night and there are three layers, about 30ml at the bottom is very watery looking then about 80ml looks like normal milk consistency then there is about 20ml of thick fatty stuff x