They say don’t cry over spilled milk, but clearly whoever coined that phrase has never pumped every 2-3 hours a day before. If you’ve ever left a breast milk bottle out and decided to dump it – we’ve been there, and have definitely cried over it.
Breast milk is incredible because it is a fresh, living source of nutrition and can last longer than you think – but it’s still milk and safety matters. Here’s the best way to save every drop:
- Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before expressing milk with your hands or a pump
- Ideally breastmilk is put in the fridge after 4 hours at room temperature, but can be good up to 8 hours if your hands were clean as well as your pump parts
- 4 days in the fridge is optimal, but again you can stretch to 5-8 days if the milk was expressed very cleanly
- A lot of changes in composition (think proteins, calories, acidity) happen to frozen milk at 3 months. But in terms of safety, milk is acceptable in a freezer for 12 months.
- Once you start feeding a baby from a bottle of milk, discard it after 1-2 hours. You can avoid this by freezing and offering small amounts (think 1-2oz).
- Milk changes after you freeze it. Many things about it, beyond the lipase level, can potentially cause baby to reject it. Even if that’s the case, there’s nothing wrong with your milk. You can get creative - try to mix it with a little bit of fresh milk or use it to create baby food.