How to Make Breast Milk Popsicle for Teething Baby
Teething can be painful for babies. To relieve pressure on their gum, give them breast milk popsicles. Here is how to make a breast milk popsicle for teething baby.
Breast milk is the only food a baby needs for the first 6 months of life. So, when they are teething, in addition to giving them teething toys, provide them with breast milk popsicles to chew on.
Not only are they great for relieving teething pain, but they are also delicious as a cold treat for babies at any age.
Depending on your baby’s age, you can fancy up the breast milk popsicle. For infants, make pure breast milk popsicles, while for toddlers, add pureed or chunks of fruits and turn them into rainbow breast milk popsicles.
A frozen breast milk popsicle is an effective teething remedy. Not only will the teething baby get relief from pain, but they will also provide some nutrition when the baby refuses a bottle when sick.
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What are Breast Milk Popsicles?
Breast milk popsicles are also known as Breast milk ice lollies, momsicle, or breast milk teether pops. They are frozen breast milk in a smaller popsicle mold, specifically for babies.
Breast milk popsicles are given to teething babies or made for toddlers who like to enjoy cold treats. There are many ways to use extra breast milk, and a breast milk popsicle is one of them.
Is Breast Milk Popsicle Safe for Babies?
Breast milk popsicles are not only safe for babies but also good for teething babies or as a frozen treat for toddlers.
As long as you access the milk popsicle for choking hazards, they are safe for babies. Silicon baby feeders are the safest option if you want to give your baby breast milk popsicle when they are younger. Also, supervise them when they are enjoying their treat.
Breast milk popsicles are also healthy and do not come with added sugar, artificial flavor, or color like store-bought ones.
When making breast milk popsicles for your infant as a teething remedy, you need to maintain proper hygiene while handling breast milk. In addition, you want to ensure that there is no contamination at each step of making breast milk popsicles for a teething baby.
Here are a few reminders
Wash your hand thoroughly
Before pumping or handling breast milk, wash your hands thoroughly, and remember to not touch anything after washing your hands when pumping.
Wash popsicle mold with soap and water before use
Breast milk popsicle molds are either plastic or silicon. Make sure to wash them with soap and water before each use.
If you are freezing your breast milk in an ice tray, make sure to cover it with saran wrap while freezing to avoid contamination with other stuff in the freezer.
Follow CDC guidelines for freezing breast milk
According to CDC, breast milk should be frozen at -18°C for long-term use. Also, store breast milk away from the freezer door to avoid temperature fluctuation while opening and closing the door.
Once the breastmilk popsicle is out of the freezer, finish it ASAP. If you have leftover popsicles, do not refreeze them. Refreezing breast milk will lose its nutritional property.
Access to choking hazard
If you decide to make breast milk popsicles on a small popsicle mold or a pacifier, make sure to do a trial experiment before giving it to your baby. Because breast milk tends to take a long time to freeze over pacifiers or smaller mold, and they also slip off quite quickly when the baby is chewing on them, making it a choking hazard for your infant.
Also, let them freeze for longer before you give them to your baby. Semi-frozen breast milk popsicles can be a choking hazard if your baby bites on them and a frozen breast milk chip or chunk comes into the baby’s mouth.
A safety option is food grade silicone baby feeder. Freeze your breast milk, transfer it to a silicon baby feeder, and give it to your baby. Also, supervise them when you are enjoying their cold treat.
At what age baby can have a Breast Milk popsicle?
Babies are ready for breast milk popsicles when they can hold on to things. The only thing that you need to be careful about is choking hazards. As long as you are not directly making breastmilk popsicles in an open mold.
If you are using a food-grade silicone feeder for making breast milk popsicles, you can give that to your teething baby as early as 3-4 months.
Depending on your baby’s age, you can fancy up your breast milk popsicle.
Are breast milk popsicles good for teething babies?
Breast milk popsicles are healthy, natural, nutritious, and teething pain relievers for your baby. Let’s see how it helps babies when they are teething.
Breast milk popsicles are healthy
DIY momsicle or breast milk popsicles are natural, healthy, and can be given to babies of any age. For example, you can give breast milk popsicles to your 3–4-months old teething baby to your 3 years old toddlers as a cold treat.
Teething can start as early as 3 months for some babies. So, in addition to giving them a teething toy, you can provide them with breast milk popsicles to soothe their sore gum.
Unlike store-bought popsicles, breast milk popsicles are natural, without added sugar or artificial ingredients, so great as a cold treat for toddlers.
The breast milk popsicle is Nutritious
When your baby is teething, there is no other nutritious remedy than a breast milk popsicle for your baby. Breast milk contains all essential nutrients that baby needs for the first 6 months of their life. Yes, there are some losses of nutrients when you freeze breast milk, but frozen breast milk is still an optimum source of nutrients in the absence of fresh breast milk.
Relieves teething pain
Teething can be painful for a baby. When their first tooth erupts, infants may become fussy and cranky due to soreness in their gum. Breast milk popsicles are a numbing agent for sore gum when you give them to chew on while they are teething.
It works the same as a teething gel. So rather than giving them something unhealthy for temporary pain relief, give breast milk popsicles that are healthy, nutritious, and work like other numbing agents.
How to make Breast Milk Popsicle for Teething Baby?
Depending on your baby’s age, you can do a variety of breast milk popsicle versions. But, first, let’s look at age-appropriate breast milk popsicle recipes.
Breast milk Teether Pops for 0-6 months old baby
Silicon baby Feeder Breast milk Popsicle
Breast milk popsicle or momsicle for infants is very easy to make. Freeze the breast milk, and you are done—no need to do anything else. But the most important thing to remember is how to give it to your baby.
You can not freeze breast milk in an open popsicle mold as it is hard for the baby to hold, and it is a choking hazard if the baby bites a chunk out of frozen breast milk.
So, you want to make a breast milk popsicle in an ice cube tray. Whether you are making breast milk popsicles for 3 months old or 4 months old, Here is what you need to do
- Wash the ice cube tray with soap and water.
- Pour freshly expressed breast milk into an ice cube tray.
- Cover them with saran wrap to avoid contamination while freezing.
- Freeze them at the back of your freezer (away from the door).
- Let them freeze for at least 12 hours. After that, do not rush into taking it out. If it is not frozen properly, it becomes a choking hazard for the baby if they bite into it.
- Once breast milk is frozen, put it into your silicon baby feeder and give it to your baby.
I prefer a silicon baby feeder vs a mesh feeder for safety reasons. First, the mesh feeder is very messy, and because breast milk popsicle melts fairly quickly, defrosted breast milk will be all over your baby.
The second thing with mesh feeding is that – the mesh may break as your baby chews through it, choking through the ice chips or cubes.
With a silicon feeder, you do not need to worry about all those things. Baby feeders made with FDA-proven food-grade silicon are non-toxic and safe for babies. For example, baby feeders from Ashtonbee and Hakka are both made from food-grade silicone and free from BPA. They are also easy to clean compared to mesh feeders.
Breast milk Popsicle on a baby spoon
If you do not have a silicone baby feeder on hand when your baby is teething, you can use a baby spoon to make a breast milk popsicle.
Feel the ice cube tray with breast milk and wrap them with saran wrap.
Then poke a hole through saran wrap with a baby spoon and place it in the breast milk.
Freeze the ice cube tray.
You can also place a pacifier over the breast milk in an ice cube tray and make a pacifier breast milk popsicle. But frozen breast milk tends to slip off the pacifier relatively quickly, making it a choking hazard for the baby.
Breast milk Popsicle for 6-12 months old
According to AAP, babies are ready for solids at 6 months. So, while introducing pureed food to your baby, why not take this breast milk popsicle to another level and make it into a Breast Milk Fruitsicle.
While making breast milk fruitsicle, you need to keep in mind the rules of introducing solids to your baby.
Only use one pureed fruit at a time to mix with breast milk.
Wait for 3-4 days before introducing another fruit to your baby.
I started with 1 tablespoon of pureed banana to 1 OZ of breast milk to make a breast milk fruitsicle. Take a small piece of ripe banana in a blender and add breast milk to it. Pure the mixture well in a blender. Then freeze the mixture in a small baby popsicle mold. These small popsicle molds are easy for the baby to hold.
As you introduce different fruits to your baby, give them a breast milk popsicle with other fruits. Good choice for a baby’s first food is purred bananas, apples, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes, avocado, and butternut squash.
Once they age, give them strawberry, blueberry, mango, and pineapple breast milk popsicles.
Breast milk Popsicle for Toddlers
Breast milk popsicles are a delicious frozen treat for toddlers as well. So when you are enjoying ice cream in summer, give them these nutritious breast milk popsicles guilt-free.
Cocomelon-Inspired Rainbow Breast milk popsicle
Toddlers are a big fan of Cocomelon. So why not make them healthy rainbow breast milk popsicles?
Every layer of Cocomelon rainbow popsicle is made with pureed frozen fruits. In this Cocomelon Rainbow breast milk popsicle recipe, we will mix breast milk as an alternative layer.
Depending on the size of your popsicle mold, you want to add a tablespoon or more pureed fruit for layering.
Start with strawberry puree as one layer, then breast milk, pureed oranges, pureed kiwi, then another layer of breast milk.
For making Cocomelon-inspired rainbow breast milk popsicles, you need to freeze each layer before adding another layer. So, it is a bit time-consuming but worth the effort as a special treat for your toddler.
You can use pureed blueberry, grapes, and mango in your rainbow popsicle.
Another simple recipe for making toddler breast milk popsicles is
- ½ cup of any one or mix of fresh or frozen fruits
- ½ cup of freshly expressed breast milk
- Honey to taste
Blend all the ingredients into a blender and pure them. Pour the mixture into the popsicle mold and let it freeze.
How to make Breast Milk Popsicle for Teething Baby – Conclusion
Breast milk popsicles are healthy, natural, and safe for teething babies of any age. It will help numb the sore gum and provide them temporary relief. Only one thing you need to be careful of when giving breast milk popsicles is to access them for choking hazards and supervise your baby while they enjoy the popsicle.
