How to minimise wastage of your breastmilk?

01 Apr 2017 Leave a comment

by endearingmoments in Breastfeeding, Motherhood Tags: , , , ,

Some mummies have been asking if they can keep the unfinished breastmilk to the next feeding session.

As we know, breastmilk that has been fed to a baby cannot be kept for the next feeding due to presence of bacteria from the saliva exposure. Any unfinished amount of breastmilk that has been exposed to saliva has to be thrown away. This is because bacteria breeds at room temperature / 37°C.

It breaks the heart of a mummy to throw away their precious golden drops, especially those with low supply. Here are some suggestions to minimise the wastage of breastmilk:

1. ESTIMATE YOUR BABY’S EACH FEEDING
Usually we can estimate how much our baby needs to drink for each feeding based on the size of their stomach & how long they latch on us. This can be estimated from baby’s previous feeding.

2. STORE IN SMALL AMOUNTS
Some mummies store their excess breastmilk in the freezer for future feedings. Once the frozen breastmilk is thawed, it must be finished in 24hours. Or it has to be thrown away. Freezing in smaller amounts according to the size of the feeding can avoid wastage. Thaw only the amount that you need and confident that baby can finish within a day.

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3. USE SEPARATE BOTTLES
During feeding, pour small amounts (1-3oz) into 2 separate bottles depending on how much your baby can consume each feeding based on your judgement. Finish the first bulk, then top up in small amounts should your baby requires more milk. Repeat until your baby is satisfied. In this way, you only expose small of your breastmilk to baby’s saliva each time. The balance of the unexposed breastmilk can be popped back into the fridge for next feeding.

EXTRA BENEFITS
Only small amounts (max 1oz) will be wasted. Usually i will store them in a separate container for spoilt milk and accumulate them for soap making. In this way i dont have to use my precious milk and still have soap for baby 😀

Thawing and warming frozen / chilled breastmilk in small amounts is way quicker. Thawing 3oz of frozen breastmilk under running water takes less than 5min. Warming a 2oz chilled breastmilk with occasional swirling takes less than 2 minutes. Babies are usually very impatient when they are hungry! Who doesn’t?! Using this suggested method can save you from high-pitched impatient cries and emotional roller coaster.😉

–MommyLove, Jen–

What to do when toddler starts acting up

13 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

by endearingmoments in Lil Pistachio, Motherhood, Parenting, Toddler

Just 2 days ago when lil pistachio started acting like a 2 year old going through their ‘terrible two’ period when she is only 1 year old 2 months & 8 days.

  1. Standing up on a high chair halfway through eating
  2. Give you that mischievious-rebellious-notty-what-what-can-you-do-now-kinda-look when you instruct her to sit
  3. Made lots of noise when you refuse her something
  4. Biting while nursing despite million times of saying no and explaining to her
  5. Giggled and laughed when you are scolding / give her an angry face. She thought you are playing with her.
  6. Refusing to follow instructions just to make you give her that angry face so that she can start giggling away.

Emphasis: She is only 1 year old 2 months & 8 days. I thought this only happens after her 2nd birthday! I am so not ready for this new phase.

I went through a couple of resources and found out that toddlers start testing limits shortly after their first birthday up to 4 years old. Oh well. Guess my honeymoon period ended 8 months earlier than expected.

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And so I found out this while I was trying to figure what is happening to my once super obedient baby. This really strikes me.

I gave it a thought & tried this out. All in 4 hours after I got home after work that evening.

  1. I let her play with knife (those butter spreader knife) to cut (murder) the banana. I wanted to use the homemade playdough that i have made last weekend but i guess it doesnt last that long. It has became soggy and sticky
  2. I let her play with the kitchen sink tap to her heart’s desires
  3. I let her help with christmas tree setting up – putting on the decors & the important one – the star
  4. I let her climb up the whole flight of stairs on her own – no screaming and in fact showed her all the tiny figurines when we reached at each platform
  5. I let her play with all her ah mai’s Suzanne Goh trophies – oops sorry ah mai😋… by just taking all the trophies out one by one
  6. I let her play with all the switches to her heart’s desires (rotating 4 switches)
  7. I let her watch our neighbourhood from our balcony
  8. I put up a little drama using my handmade sock rabbit and she was giggling non-stop and ended up hugging the rabbit tightly
  9. She knocked on the door & so i let her out of the room to roam around the upstairs
  10. I guided her to put back all the trophies she messed up earlier. Showed her how to put it back one by one and close the shelve
  11.  I let her choose a new storybook & guided her back to our bed
  12. I showed & read out each and every character on the 135pages thick book and finally she is satisfied
  13. She latches on, still with the book in front of her and flipping pages and me reading out loud to her
  14. She dozed off in 5 minutes – all happy, no struggle, no false signing, no lip-pouting-rebellious-notty-challenging-you-kinda-face & absolutely no biting!!

And me, i dozed off together a happy mom 😂

And yes, that quote works!

The best part is :

  1.  I get 8 hours of solid uninterrupted sleep
  2. 2. Her pampers were dry upon waking up in the morning
  3. She greeted me with pa pa, mama upon waking up, and then po po when she met her downstairs for breakfast
  4. She specifically asked for poo poo, nen nen, and mum mum so i know exactly what she wants

What I noticed are:

  1. The lesser you give a reaction, the lesser acting up it is
  2. The more you allowed her to do what she wants to do, the more she will do as you want her to do
  3. After 2 days of continuously trying out this method, she became more loving & less rebellious – just the way I would love her to be.
  4. As long as the activity is not life endangering and you have the luxury of time to accompany her, I guess it is fine to let her explore some of the so-called dangerous activities.
  5. Show her what you want her to be. Once we tried to instil fear by using a ruler to hit on the table / lightly on her bum bum when she misbehaves, it ends up her asking for the ruler and hit me right on my head. Sometimes when she purposely act up, she would copy our hitting actions and pretend to hit using her hand.

All you need is high dose of love, patience and compassion. ☺

The feeling of their tiny hands wrapped around your waist from behind, is priceless. ~MommyLove, Jen~