It Takes a Village
If you hang around my page long, it’s no secret we are on a mission to give our sweet Jack 1 full year of donated breastmilk only! We are almost 9 months in & we have been able to do just that, breastmilk only! It’s been such a gift! I’m convinced that is a big reason he has done so well & is growing so healthy.
If you’re new here - we had a surprise adoption of our sweet guy, Jack, 8 months ago!
I’ve gotten many questions over the last few months so I’m going to answer them here to have all in one place! If there’s any I missed, leave them in the comments & I’ll get to them!
Q: Who can use donated breastmilk?
A: Any adopted or foster babies (with permission from caseworker!), mama’s who aren’t able to produce enough or at all. There’s always mama’s with oversupply!
Q: Why donated breastmilk vs your breastmilk vs formula?
A: I knew I didn’t want to/didn’t have the time or mental space to attempt relactating. With 5 kids & 1 of them still in foster care, it just wasn’t something I wanted to attempt. We wanted to use breastmilk as long as we possibly could before going to formula & we have been able to for nearly 9 solid months so far! This may not be the right choice for everyone & their baby, but it was for us!
Q: Do you test the milk before you use it?
A: We don’t. We feel that the mama’s who are committing the time, energy, money into pumping likely aren’t simultaneously consuming drugs/alcohol & giving it to babies. Most of our donors will tell us about diet/eating habits etc. We do ask if there are any prescription medications used & mama’s have always been open with us about that!
Q: Where do you find breastmilk donors?
A: The internet & friend connections. Early on we stared with texting our community of friends & then we moved to the internet! We have been able to continually find donors that way & they’re almost always friend of a friend kind of deal!
Q: Do you pay for the breastmilk?
A: We have once before, but typically no. Our precious donors are just that, donors to be a blessing. We do our best to replace bags especially for our repeat donors to be sure they’re not our money of their own!
Q: What about breastmilk banks? Do you get any from there?
A: We have not. We initially looked into these when he was first born, however, they pasteurize the breastmilk, which in our opinion kind of defeats the purpose. We want all the nutrients, antibodies, etc that come with unpasteurized breastmilk.
Q: How much will you need?
A: A lot. haha. I wish I would have kept track of how many oz he’s consumed, but it’s a lot more than you think. I would estimate to date (he’s 8.5 months old) he’s consumed roughly 10,000 oz of milk so far.
Our journey to 1 year on donated breastmilk has been challenging at times, we’ve driven to 3 different states to meet up with donors, we’ve been down to our very last bag when the Lord provides another donor, but man this has been so healing for Jack’s body.
We’d do it all over again.
