I have been using these bags for 3 months. They were provided to me by the Mother's Milk Bank in San Jose. Prior to using these bags, I had used the very popular Lansinoh bags for 3 months.
Between the two, I much prefer the HoneySuckle bags. Why? They are better. How are they better, you ask?
1. This bag is actually tamper resistant, while the Lansinoh bag is not. The HoneySuckle bags have the entire top sealed to prevent tampering. You cannot tamper with the bag without opening one of the three sides of the perforated top. You remove the perforated portion to open the bag. The Lansinoh bags have a perforated top, but not the sides of that upper area, so you could actually still open the bag without undoing the perforations. Poor design IMO.
2. The sides and bottom of the HoneySuckle bags are reinforced, the Lansinoh bags are not. I pump exclusively, and even at 6 mos, my son is not eating all the milk I produce, so I freeze easily 2-4 bags of milk a day. I can produce between 8 to as much as 14oz during a pumping session, and have been able to overfill these bags without them bursting open when they are frozen. The reinforced sides and bottom have alot to do with that.
3. The information to write at the top is much more useful, and is rightside up. The Lansinoh bags have the info updside down. That has always bothered me. Even when you stand the bags up in the freezer, they are upside down. It's stupid. HoneySuckle bags have the labeling rightside up. Plus it asks for baby's name and the date, not the volume. I don't find the volume info helpful at all, and when my baby was in the NICU, or when donating breastmilk, the name is much more useful information.
4. Best quality THEY ARE BIODEGRADABLE!! They will dissolve when they are in the landfill. If you care about the environment at all, these are the bags for you. The Lansinoh bags aren't biodegradable, at least from what I can tell from their packaging. As if dirty diapers aren't a big enough contribution to the tremendous amount of trash people generate these days, breastmilk storage bags don't need to add to that.
Price wise, these are comparable to the Lansinoh bags, except that with shipping they are a few dollars more. But I think they are worth it from a quality and environmental standpoint. You can also go to the New Bag Co. website and order a free sample if you aren't convinced. IMO, these bags are superior to the Lansinoh bags and I will definitely be using them exclusively.
I did a lot of research before purchasing these bags. I looked at various brands of breastmilk storage bags as well as researching oxo plastics as I was unfamilar with them. From my research I ended up choosing purchasing over the lansinol ones.
Why?
1. These have a reinforced bottom, lansinol do not.
2. The side seams are a lot thicker than the lansinol ones, so would presumably be stronger.
3. The biodragradable factor, this can only be a good thing right? While researching oxo plastics I discovered that oxo plastics are FDA approved and are safe for food storage and do not contain any BPA (lansinol bags are also BPA free). Oxo plastics can be manufactured to degrade quicker or slower depending on the manufacturers needs, therefore if you wish to compost them I would suggest contacting the manufacturer to find out the degradation time. That oxo plastics need oxygen to degrade so they would not degrade well in landfills as most landfills currently inoperation do not have an atmosphere conducive to biodegrading as they are so deep and compacted that there is not enough oxygen. But surely any amount of degradation is better than the alternative bags?
After receiving the bags I conducted a few experiments with these bags and a few of the lansinol ones I had received in a couple of boxes of the lansinol disposable breastpads.
Conclusions.
1. Apon examining the two different bags I noticed that the lansinol ones are marked with the reccyling symbol and the number 4. If you have access to recycling and are diligent in sorting your recyclables it would actually be better for the environment to use the lansinol ones.
2. I took one of each type of bag and stretched each bags seams and bottoms, neither bag gave way and seemed to still be in good condition. I then fill these bags with water, sealed them and then squeezed the bags to see if either would leak, the honeysuckle one did leak at the seem right underneath the zipper, the lansinol had not leaks.
3. I took two new bags, one of each type, and over filled them with 7oz of water in each. I then squeezed them to check the seams, neither leaked. I froze them flat and then thawed each in a seperate bowl, neither leaked during the freezing or thawing process.
Both bags should hold up well to use following the maufacturers directions. If you have recycling in your area I would suggest the lansinol ones, if you do not have recycling then I would suggest the honeysuckle. Once I have used these up I will be switching to the lansinol ones. If you want more info about oxo plastics this website is quite informative.
Buy Oxo-Biodegradable Honeysuckle Breast Milk Storage Bags Now
When I bought these I was a little hesitant, as they were brand spanking new on the market and there were no reviews. I decided to try them out, because they were cheaper than the Lansinoh bags I have been using.
I love, love, LOVE these bags! And the fact that they're biodegradable makes me like them even more. While I do agree with a previous reviewer saying that there wasn't a spot to put the volume size, I just use the place where it says "name" since I know my baby is getting it anyway.
You won't be disappointed with these bags! The company itself is amazing too, they will give you free samples of the bags if you ask for them on their Facebook page, and also they do giveaways every Friday-last Friday I won a free 25 pack of storage bags :)
Read Best Reviews of Oxo-Biodegradable Honeysuckle Breast Milk Storage Bags Here
We have twins and are having frozen breast milk shipped to us via fedex twice a week on a combination of wet ice and freezer packs in a styrofoam container (Insulated Shipping Containers, 13 3/4" x 11 3/4" x 11 7/8"; http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZJSH3I/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_6). The bags were not overfilled and were frozen flat. We found out early that some bags do not hold up well so I ordered every single breast milk bag I could and kept track of how they did (I am a scientist). Here are the results from worst to best (NOTE: this review is most relevant if you are shipping breast milk as fedex is not gentle on packages; if you are not shipping other bags we don't like might be fine but I can tell you which is best overall). Hope you can learn from our experience.
Honeysuckle breast milk storage bags: terrible. More than half of these broke during shipping whereas in the same shipment other bag types held up well. I would avoid these.
Lansinoh breast milk storage bags: second worst. About 1/4-1/3 of these typically broke/leaked upon shipping. It is not hard to tell they are the flimsiest. P.S. If you use these, a tip I found to help thaw them is to put each bag in a zip lock so it the bag leaks you can still use what stays in the bag (versus what leaks into the ziplock).
Medela breast milk storage bags: ok, not great. Hold up better than Honeysuckle and Lansinoh. About 1/6 1/5 of these would break/leak. They are also more difficult to pour out of and tend to lose a little milk in the pouring process (trick is to pour fast out of these).
Ameda breast milk storage bags: never used them as they come with twist ties and not ziplock seals.
Dr. Brown's breast milk storage bags: work great. never had one break. stand up well on their own. very easy to pour out of. Recommended except there is an option just as good and cheaper.
NUK/Gerber Seal N Go Disposible Liner: the winner! One bag out of very many has leaked. Stayed intact even when other bags did not survive. Good to pour out of (not as easy as Dr. Brown's but good enough). Thaw well. Better priced than Dr. Brown's (which is why we went with these).
Want Oxo-Biodegradable Honeysuckle Breast Milk Storage Bags Discount?
I had been using the lansinoh bags and after a few leaks tried the green sprouts storage bags which were great but pretty costly the honeysuckle bags have been great! Affordable price and no leaks :)
**Updated**
Now that we are in full swing using these bags to defrost milk for Daycare I can give a better review. I have had 3 leaky bags out of about 100 which have been defrosted so far... there were no holes when I put the milk in but the 3 that have leaked seem to have come apart at the seems when frozen. I have about a months worth of milk frozen in them right now and I sure hope that there aren't more leaks... as a 3% failure rate isn't great. I will update again in another month as that will be another 140 bags we have defrosted.
* Update 2* I freeze 8 bags a day 6 oz of milk in each. I defrost 5 a day. Today 3 of my 5 which were left to thaw overnight were leaking. All were from different batches and all were leaking along the seams. I cannot even put into words the anxiety I have about the fate of my entire freezer full of milk stored in these bags.... To lose 18 oz today was heartbreaking.
This is a very well made, unique, cool toy set. My daughter loves it, and I wonder why they didn't make stuff like this when I was a kid, cuz I would have loved it. Guess that is why I love it now, and got it for her!
