Storing Your Breastmilk

Sensible issues when storing your breastmilk

Clear food-grade containers or unused breastmilk storage luggage are one of the best storage containers for human milk, particularly if it is to be frozen and saved for weeks or months. Do not use bottles with the recycle image quantity 7. Because of this the container could also be fabricated from a plastic that has the chemical BPA. By no means use common disposable luggage, comparable to kitchen luggage or these made for bottle feeding. Freezing might trigger these to leak and break down. If utilizing breastmilk storage luggage, squeeze the air from the highest earlier than sealing tightly. Generally, place storage luggage upright in one other container or the milk might leak. But when the double zipper seal on the breastmilk storage bag is dependable, laying the bag flat within the freezer will assist the milk thaw sooner later.

Chances are you’ll mix milk pumped from each breasts right into a single container. Simply fastidiously pour the milk from one container into the opposite. Retailer just one to 4 ounces per container. That method you will not waste any. It is simpler to thaw a second container of milk than to look at your useful milk be poured down the drain as a result of it wasn’t used. Label every assortment container with the date and any medicines you will have taken. It is OK to mix milk from totally different pumping periods. Ensure it was pumped on the identical day and the milk chilled earlier than mixing it collectively.  

Well being issues when storing your breastmilk

The next tips are for wholesome, full-term infants. Storage tips could also be totally different for untimely or high-risk infants. Discuss together with your child’s healthcare supplier for particular directions.

Contemporary breastmilk incorporates probably the most lively anti-infective properties, adopted by refrigerated breastmilk, after which frozen breastmilk.

Unrefrigerated recent milk could also be left at room temperature of 77°F (25°C). However it should be used inside 4 hours.

It is seemingly higher to refrigerate recent milk when it is not going for use inside 60 minutes. The fridge must be at a temperature of 40°F (4°C). Do not freeze milk for a high-risk child if that milk has already been refrigerated for greater than 24 to 48 hours.

If refrigerated milk will not be used inside 4 days, freeze it for later use. Milk might be frozen for about:

• As much as 2 weeks if the freezer compartment is within the fridge. (You should open the fridge door to succeed in the freezer with this mannequin.)

• 3 to six months in a freezer that’s a part of a fridge unit however has a separate door

• 6 to 12 months in a separate, -0°F (-18°C) deep freezer

To maintain milk cool when a fridge is not accessible straight away, or to move refrigerated or frozen milk, place it in an insulated bag or cooler with a frozen chilly pack. It must be moved to (or again to) a fridge or freezer inside 24 hours.