That camping trip your family still talks about? Science says it’s worth more than any toy under the tree.
Kids say the darndest things — but they also have the darndest ideas.
That was evident on Jan. 13 when Brontë — an influencer who regularly posts videos of her life as a “toddler mom” — went viral for sharing a video of her 2-year-old daughter eating frozen breast milk.
“This was definitely not how I planned to use the final bag of breastmilk,” she wrote in a text overlay.
In the video, Brontë’s daughter, Zelly, is sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen breast milk in her hand when she takes a bite out of it — as if it were a popsicle.
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“Parenting is 100% improvisation,” she added in the caption. “Anyone else hold onto that final bag like it was worth its weight in gold?”
Brontë’s followers took to the comment section to share their thoughts on what many described as a “great idea.”
- “Mine begged for it when he saw it in the freezer!! This is how my last one went too”
- “This is pure genius, girl made her own way”
- “she needed some.of the top shelf good stuff.”
- “A lil something to take off the edge”
- “Looks like she’s had a rough day, she deserves it”
- “My son eats frozen breast milk the same wayyyyy wow!! I thought he was the only one”
One user joked that she “was trying to figure out by her facial expression if she liked it or not.”
“She loved it. She's just got resting toddler face 24/7. I hear it's the precursor to the RBF I suffer from,” Brontë joked in return.
In an interview with People, published Jan. 13, Brontë said she was “shocked” at how “a video of my kid taking bites of her frozen milk would resonate with so many different people.”
"Breastfeeding has been such an incredible journey for me. We went through two years of infertility treatment, so I never knew how our journey would turn out,” she told the outlet.
Brontë was going to use the frozen breast milk for something else
While talking to People, Brontë said she was going back and forth on how to use frozen breast milk.
"Honestly, I have no clue. I have one piece of breastmilk jewelry already," she told the outlet.
Breast milk jewelry is a sentimental keepsake made by preserving a mother's milk (fresh or frozen) and mixing it with resin to form a solid, jewel-like stone
"Maybe more jewelry for myself,” she continued. “We used bags of milk for milk baths when her eczema was bad, so maybe for that as well. I didn't really have a plan. It was my emotional support bag of milk.”
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It wasn’t until she brought the bag of frozen breast milk home from work that her daughter made that decision for her.
“I opened my lunchbox to put it in the freezer and [Zelly] saw the bag of milk. She put her little hand on her chest and goes, 'Mine, mama. My bite. Mine,’” she told People.
"I definitely paused for a second, but I did this for her, so I opened the bag and handed it to her. She went over to the couch and clearly got comfy!" she continued.
According to the CDC, freshly expressed or pumped breast milk is good for up to one year in the freezer — though it’s recommended to use it within six months, if possible.
The CDC recommends thawing frozen breast milk under lukewarm water or overnight in the refrigerator — thawing it in the microwave destroys nutrients and creates hot spots, which can burn a baby’s mouth.
Brontë went on to reveal just how much that last bag meant to her — and how it’s something that doesn’t get talked about often enough.
"What do we do when the journey is over? A huge part of our lives and journeys just ends with a frozen bag of milk. It's kind of intense,” she told People.
"Motherhood is such a complex transition. There's so many different chapters that just close quietly, but still take such an emotional toll,” she added.
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“I just want to remind all the mamas out there that they're doing a great job,” she concluded.
