A New Mother’s Guide to Storing Breast Milk

New moms naturally have a lot of questions, especially about breast-feeding and storing breast milk.

Here are some milk storage tips and guidelines to help little ones grow healthy and strong:

• Verify milk or infant formula storage information with your physician. Follow his or her instructions exactly.
• Keep it cold. Refrigerate or freeze just-pumped breast milk using pre-sterilized nursing bags, clean bottles with screw-on caps or tightly capped plastic cups. Mark containers with baby’s name and the date the milk was pumped. If necessary, add fresh cooled milk to previously frozen milk, keeping the final ratio at 50 percent. If you’re starting with 1 ounce of frozen breast milk, add no more than 1 ounce of cooled milk.
• Keep it fresh. For full-term babies with no health concerns, store at room temperature up to 10 hours, keeping milk below 77 degrees.
• Freezing guidelines: When storing breast milk, you can freeze it for up to 8 days, at between 32 and 39 degrees.
  • Placing the milk inside your refrigerator’s freezer compartment (below 32 degrees) maintains freshness for up to 14 days.
  • If you use a separate, connected freezer (beside or on top of the refrigerator) at zero degrees, milk will remain fresh for 6 months to 1 year.
  • You can also opt to deep-freeze at 4 degrees for 6 to 12 months.
  • Storing milk containers in freezer doors is not recommended. Place in the back of the freezer.
  • Milk expands as it freezes, so leave 1 inch of empty space at the top of storage containers.
• Thaw it out. Thaw milk in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then warm it up by running warm water over the container. Use it within the next 24-hour period. Need milk immediately? Remove the container from the freezer and hold it under warm running water until it reaches room temperature. Don’t refreeze.
• When your baby starts drinking from a bottle, use the remaining contents within 60 minutes. If the baby doesn’t finish the entire bottle, you can refrigerate, then warm to use at the next feeding.

For breast-feeding and baby supplies, visit Mar-J Medical Supply online. When in Boca Raton, please visit our retail store.

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