Last month PBN sent me this new fangled breast milk storage thing called MilkBank. When I first received the email about reviewing MilkBank, I thought they were asking me to review an actual milk bank-I’d pump and then ship them my milk. I’m stingy with my milk so there was no way that I was going to do THAT. Turns out, I was just reviewing some bottles. *sigh of relief*
The first thing that I noticed about the system is that they are really cool looking. [refer to picture] I read over the press release and then felt just a bit overwhelmed by all of the parts. I read the instructions five or six times and then hooked up the ole breast pump.
And then I came to the annoying realization that my breast pump didn’t fit the bottle and so I was stuck having to hold the pump in the bottle and hope that I didn’t slip. Luckily, no slipping occurred and I had some milk on which to experiment.
I screwed on the orange top [I’d give you the technical name but Cara literally ate the instructions with the part names.] and put the suction deal on top and pumped like crazy. Once it was hard for me to pump any longer, I pulled off the suction thing and shook the bottle of milk. No leaks. I unscrewed the top and heard a little sucky-pop noise [almost like what you hear when you open a new jar of spaghetti sauce]. I think I did that three or four times just because of the novelty of it all.
Since the kids and I were due to eat breakfast with my mom and family, I filled up the insulator bottle with hot tap water and screwed the milk bottle on and then put the little white disk on the bottle so that milk wouldn’t get into the nipple. Here’s where I ran into more issues. What the heck was I supposed to do with that straw thing? I ended up sticking it in the nipple and hoping that the nipple wouldn’t get screwed up. I was using the 2.5 oz bottle so the straw was really little but I’m not sure what I’ll do with the straw from the 5 oz bottle.
When we got to the restaurant, I took the white disk off of the bottle [where the heck should I put that thing?] and assembled everything and handed Oliver and the bottle off to my mom. Ollie drank from the bottle without a second thought and I about fell off of my chair. I bought a $10 bottle right before Ollie was born because I wanted to be able to pump and then let Tucker give him a bottle since I was never able to do that with Cara. Cara would take NO bottle. Ollie laughed at the $10 bottle. We’ve since tried four different bottles and he’s refused them all-until the MilkBank bottle.
So, I had tried out the whole vacuum sealing the milk and then Ollie tried out the eating of said milk. No leaks and no issues other than what to do with the straw thing and the white disk.
One of MilkBank’s claims to fame is that:
“Vacuum storage protects the quality and flavor of breast milk…storing breast milk in traditional milk storage bags (where oxygen is ever present) spoils breast milk.”
“Traditional storage methods, such as bags and bottles, trap harmful oxygen when sealed. This exposure to oxygen not only impacts the nutritional value, but can also distort the flavor, causing babies to reject stored breast milk.”
Since Cara wouldn’t ever take a bottle of expressed milk-fresh or frozen-and Ollie hadn’t ever had frozen milk, I really had no baseline to compare to but I figured that I might as well toss a bottle of milk in the freezer to see what happens.
The next day, while I was making dinner, I handed a bottle of thawed milk to Tucker and told him to give it a try. Ollie gave Tucker a “you’re feeding me?” look and then settled into eating. Therein lies the beauty of this system. You pump into the bottle that you freeze and you pop a nipple on that same bottle and the milk is never transferred out of that bottle until it’s transferred to your kid’s belly.
I wish that Cara hadn’t eaten the press release along with the instructions since there was a line that I’d like to quote but I’ll wing it. Basically it said that with each transfer of milk you lose valuable fats. If you’ve ever dealt with breast milk then you know that it’s REALLY oily and you know that the fat absolutely coats the inside of whatever held the milk. SO, if you pump, freeze and feed all in the same bottle then you don’t lose any of that fat that your kid needs for those all important myelin sheaths.
Pros:
- Pretty design
- Multiple bottle sizes
- Fully vented bottles
- No leaking
Cons:
- pump doesn’t fit bottles
- takes longer to thaw milk
- lots of parts
I LOVED these bottles and plan on getting more. I recommend them to you and would recommend them to people who have kids who refuse bottles.
That’s not all.
PBN and everyone who reviewed these bottles are holding contest for Milkbank systems. Leave your comments here to enter my contest and also check out:
- Motherhood Uncensored
- My Family Loves It
- Mothergoosemouse
- Temporarily Me
- Binkytowne
- Her Bad Mother
- Tales from the Dad Side/Circle of Life
- Mummy’s Product Reviews
- Mommin’ It Up
The contest ends on the 24th so hurry up with your comments. The winner here will be chosen via Random.org so that there are no shenanigans.
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