Tightly cap bottles. Do not store bottles with nipples attached. Label each container with your baby's name and the date and time the milk was expressed. Put several bottle bags in a larger airtight plastic bag to prevent them from sticking to the freezer shelf.
You can feed expressed milk straight from the fridge if your baby is happy to drink it cold. Or you can warm the milk to body temperature by putting the bottle in a jug of warm water or holding it under running warm water. Do not use a microwave to heat up or defrost breast milk.
If you'd like to add your most recently pumped fresh milk to a bottle of already refrigerated milk pumped on the same day, you need to cool it down. First, place the fresh breast milk into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. Then, once it is cool, you can add it to the other container of refrigerated milk.
Tightly cap bottles. Do not store bottles with nipples attached. Label each container with your baby's name and the date and time the milk was expressed. Put several bottle bags in a larger airtight plastic bag to prevent them from sticking to the freezer shelf.
It is not safe to reuse breast milk that has been left out longer than 2 hours. Dispose of it if this is the case. Breast milk should never be re-refrigerated or re-frozen.
Prepping fresh milk
I recommend prepping bottles the night before if you can – I usually did it as soon as I walked in the door, before putting them in my fridge. Anything to make mornings easier!
Can I store breast milk in bottles? Our bottles would love to look after your breast milk. We even have special lids you can pop on to store your milk in the fridge or freezer.
Can I mix freshly expressed breast milk with older breast milk? Mixing freshly expressed breast milk with already cooled or frozen milk is not advised because it can rewarm the older stored milk. It is best to cool freshly expressed milk before combining it with older, previously cooled or frozen milk.
Yes, certainly. If you're doing a lot of pumping, try to mix batches pumped around the same time.
Safety is priority number one, of course, but convenience isn't far behind which leads to the question: Can you pump breast milk into the same bottle all day? “[You] can absolutely keep adding to the same bottle within that day's time,” says Ashley Georgakapoulos, Motif Medical's lactation director.
Breast milk changes dramatically over the course of the day. For example, levels of cortisol – a hormone that promotes alertness – are three times higher in morning milk than in evening milk.
1. Best in Versatile Usage: Medela Breastmilk Bottles. These two 250mL bottles are at the forefront of the list for a good reason. Madela aims to provide the best experience for both you and your child with this one.
Baby bottle nipple: 3 - 6 months
Each nipple can last up to 3 months in general, but if it begins to change colors, pale, swollen, or too soft, it means that the nipple is nearly depleted and should be replaced immediately. Rubber nipples - The average functional life is about 3 months.
You can store freshly expressed breast milk: at room temperature (below 25°C) for six hours. refrigerated at 5-10°C for three days. refrigerated at 0-4°C for six days.
If made-up formula is stored: in a fridge – use within 24 hours. in a cool bag with an ice pack – use within 4 hours. at room temperature – use within 2 hours.
Use cooler packs.
You can put breastmilk in a cooler or insulated cooler pack with frozen ice packs for up to 24 hours after pumping. After 24 hours in a cooler the breastmilk should be refrigerated or frozen.
It is ok to store baby bottles with mixed baby formula in the fridge for up to 24 hours, you may then heat them when you need them. This means you e.g. can make all bottles needed for nightly feeds before you go to bed, keep them refridgerated and heat baby bottle in seconds in the microwave.
Once you've found a nipple your little one is comfortable with, it's best to change bottle nipples every 3 months to ensure they remain in good condition. If you spot a crack anywhere, you'll need to change it over straight away.
Pacifiers and nipples - TOSS/RECYCLE
Pacifiers and bottle nipples are mostly made of silicone or rubber, both of which break down after time, use, and exposure to heat. It's best to toss these out and buy new for your next baby.
There are two types of nipples available for baby bottles: rubber and silicon. The rubber or the latex one is softer but needs to be replaced very frequently, while the silicon ones are firmer and durable. They should generally be replaced after every few months.
It's best to store breast milk in glass or BPA-free hard plastic bottles. The breast milk loses fewer antibodies when you put it in glass bottles to freeze it. For healthy term infants, wash containers in hot soapy water, rinse in warmwater and leave to air dry. Then store them in a clean, covered container.
How much expressed milk should I give my baby? Every baby is different. Research shows that in babies aged one to six months, one baby may take as little as 50 ml during a feed while another may take as much as 230 ml. Start by preparing a bottle with around 60 ml, and see if your baby needs more or less.
I've found the best way to build a stash of breast milk without causing your body to permanently over-produce is to create a pumping schedule and accumulate the stored milk gradually over several weeks. Pumping just a few ounces extra a day over a few weeks is enough to build your stored milk.
Kissing your baby will change your breast milk
When you kiss your baby, you are sampling the pathogens on her skin, which are then transferred to your lymphatic system where you will produce antibodies to any bugs. These antibodies will then pass through your breast milk to your baby and boost her immune system.
The overall amount of fat in breast milk is highest in the evening and at night, compared with milk produced during the day. However, multiple factors contribute to the amount of fat in breast milk, especially the frequency of feeding. More frequent emptying of the breast increases the fat content in breast milk.