Lansinoh Breast Milk Storage Bags 50-pk.

5 stars

I've tried several other kinds - these are the best I've found. I like their double zipper and thickness of the bag. Here's a storage system my friend recommended and it works awesome! (just want to share things that have helped me have 2 great BF experiences)
1) Freeze 2-3 oz in each bag to begin with (increase along with your child's intake)
2) Get all air out of bag and close.
3) lay flat in plastic container with lid. store in refrig/freezer to freeze.
4) purchase shoebox size sterilite containers (from target)
5) once bag is frozen, store bag standing up on it's side (you can fit about 80oz of milk in 1 container)
6) store container in deep freeze for 6-12 mos.
rotate containers in your frige/freezer if necessary.

good luck!

1 stars

Bags vs. Bottles:
-According to the book "Baby 411": Many of those great antibodies in Mom's milk stick to the bags and don't get to baby's mouth. Most lactation professionals prefer the soft polypropylene bottles (frosted or colored plastic) for breast milk storage because the antibodies in the breast milk won't stick to these bottles as much.
-In my experience, you can't stack more than 6 bags or so on top of each other before they start to fall off. But, 50 bags do take a bit less room than 50 bottles.
-Perhaps it's this falling off & colliding with surfaces that is the cause of the tears (other reviewers have called them holes) in the seams of the bags (mostly the bottom corners). It is NOT over-filling as some have suggested, since I NEVER overfilled & still more than 1/2 of my bags developed these tears. (I weighed each bag to 5.9 oz or less on my digital scale.)
-I learned to thaw the bags in a baby cereal bowl. Still, transferring milk from the bowl & the leaking bags into bottles is messy, & some of the milk gets wasted. Even when it's all poured out, there is a film of milk stuck to the inside of the bag that you have to remove bit by bit with a spoon or something. All in all, the process wastes a lot of milk (initial transfer from bottle to bag, from bowl to bottle, & from bag to bottle) & takes a while, a problem I do not have with the plastic or glass bottles-which can go from pump to freezer to warmer with no loss due to transfer or sticking.
-Bags are not reusable & not exactly recyclable (due to health & smell concerns of throwing them in the recyclables which often do not get taken out everyday). Reusable bottles are better for the environment.
-Bags are initially cheaper than bottles, but not after you use the bottles several times instead of buying several boxes of bags.
-Bottles are a lot easier to defrost using a bottle warmer (due to shape & to no worry of leaks).

My suggestion is to use bottles instead:
-The Medela or Lansinoh brand bottles(both have the frosted kind that will leave your antibodies in your breast milk)
-The Evenflow brand (widely available and cheaper than the others too, but they are clear plastic)
-Glass bottles (hard to find)
-Empty bottles from ready-to-go formula (Nestle's Good Earth formula comes in 3 oz glass bottles), but you will need to buy bottle caps (Evenflow brand is the only one I found) for these because the caps for formula bottles have a metal part that is not meant for reusing.

4 stars

To all you mom's who give these bags a bad review because they leak, you need to read every line in the handout they give you in every box. If you had done that, you would know that because they're not made of plastic and are made of something much safer, they are very delicate and CAN be punctured once frozen if not taken care of properly. You can't just throw them in the freezer next to everything else. If you lay them flat and take care not to bump them, you'll have NO issues with leaking. However, that's why I docked a star. I learned the hard way and lost some milk with my first child (I'm currently expecting our third), which led me to read the instructions. That is the ONLY reason they didn't get 5 stars from me. Breastmilk is very valuable and it's very sad when any is lost. We just have a spot in our freezer for the bags and nothing else goes there to ensure my milk's safety.

5 stars

I never write reviews but I read reviews like crazy before I invest in things; I felt it was my duty as a devout review reader to spread the word about Lansinoh bags...here it goes: I have twins and CANNOT waste breast milk. It's like gold to me, especially if Dad and I need some alone time and Grandma has to babysit. These bags work great (if you follow the instructions!)!!!. I freeze them flat (for easy stacking and storing), put paper towels between the flat frozen "bags of gold" (so they don't freeze together and break upon pulling them apart) and then combine them all (dated, of course) in ziploc freezer bags (to preserve taste and prevent clumsy helpers from dropping the individual bags and consequently puncturing the bag). This process works for me and isn't too arduous; with twins there's no time to waste! Oh, they also defrost quickly. I just fill the bottom of my kitchen sink with warm water and break up the "iceberg" of milk into smaller pieces once it gets going and voilá! Get these bags!! You won't regret it!