When I was a working/pumping mom it took me quite a while to figure out the mechanics of milk storage. I was always a little resentful when it came time to buy more milk storage bags - they're not cheap, and I hated throwing away so much plastic.
So, I'm happy to be able to post a review of an alternative to milk storage bags. The product is called Milk Trays, and it works a lot like an ice cube tray, with some important differences. I asked Ruby (pictured below with her baby), a currently working/pumping mom, to test them out. Here's what she had to say:
"As a mom who is working and pumping a lot, and also as someone who has a bit of an oversupply issue, I was very interested in trying these trays. I was also intrigued by the fact that the inventor of the product is a pumping mom who works as a firefighter paramedic.
Milk Trays have 8 one-ounce cavities for freezing milk in small portions. The trays have lids to prevent freezer burn, and they're made from medical grade plastic. Unlike an ice cube tray, the frozen 'milk sticks' fit through the mouth of any bottle opening. You use the trays for freezing milk (not storing it) so that it can be transferred to a storage bag.
Milk Trays a great alternative to breastmilk freezer bags because you can freeze your milk and then pop out the milk sticks and transfer them to any freezer safe bag or container. The sticks are 1 ounce each, so you have the convenience of only thawing the milk you need. Since the milk doesn't stick to the trays like it does with storage bags, you waste less milk. Also, you can cut off a small piece of a stick to thaw just a little milk to add to cereal when your baby starts solid food.
These trays might also save you some money compared to breastmilk storage bags because the trays allow you to freeze the milk and then transfer it to a larger, less expensive freezer bag - making the tray available for the next round of milk. This probably would also eliminate some of the plastic waste of breastmilk storage bags, too. I'm finding them useful for freezing solid foods, too.
If you have a lot of milk to freeze and thaw, defrosting the milk can be a little slow. When trying to prepare a 4 ounce bottle, I could only fit 1-2 sticks in the bottle at a time, and found it hard to thaw them in a hurry. [The company suggests either using a bottle warmer and putting more sticks in as they melt, or bringing a bag of milk sticks and extra bottles to the day care so that they can be thawed there.] It also took me a little practice to fill up the tray to the proper mark and get it into the freezer without spilling any, but I'm sure that gets easier with practice.
From a practical standpoint, if you're storing a lot of milk, I think that the trays are useful when used in conjunction with storage bags. I like having bags of 3-4 ounces of milk in the freezer for when I know I need a whole bottle's worth, and a container of 1 ounce sticks for when I only need to thaw a little bit. They cost $15.95 for two trays and two lids through the company's website, which also lists local retailers."
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