Once breast milk is brought to room temperature or warmed, use it within 2 hours. Never refreeze breast milk after it has thawed.

Can breast milk go back in fridge after being warmed?

How to Safely Handle Breast Milk That Has Been Warmed – If you know how to handle and use your breast milk safely, it won’t go bad or become a place where bacteria can grow, Here are some tips:

• Once the breast milk has been warmed, you can give it to your child immediately or put it back in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
• Warm breast milk shouldn’t be left out at room temperature.
• It shouldn’t be frozen again.
• If your baby doesn’t drink all the breast milk in the bottle, you should throw it away.

: Can Warmed Breast Milk Be Refrigerated Again – TSMP Medical Blog

Can you save milk after it has been heated?

Can Warmed Breast Milk Be Refrigerated Again? –

Yes, you can refrigerate warmed breast milk again as long as you make sure to use that milk within 2 hours of the first warming. So you have two hours once your breast milk first comes to room temperature or is warmed to feed it to your baby. Any breast milk not consumed after 2 hours should be discarded, even if it was put back in the fridge. Refrigeration slows bacteria growth so it may be better to keep unused breast milk in the fridge instead of room temperature during that 2 hour window.

Can you rewarm breast milk twice?

Is It Safe to Reuse Breast Milk? Reviewed by on April 18, 2023 Many mothers choose to breastfeed their infants after birth. They often pump milk to provide bottles for other family members to feed their baby. Can you reuse breast milk once you make a ? This depends on when the breast milk was expressed, or pumped, and if it was stored in the fridge or not.

4 hours when freshly expressed4 days in the back of your refrigerator6 to 12 months in a deep freezer

Of course, consider the environmental or other factors if you are wondering whether to feed your baby expressed that’s been left at room temp for an hour without refrigerating, or was in the fridge for a few days before freezing. If you’re concerned that breast milk is bad, smell it.

1. As long as it doesn’t have a foul odor, it’s probably safe for your baby to drink.
2. Eep in mind that the fat in separates over time.
3. This creates a congealed layer near the top of the bottle.
4. This is completely normal.
5. It’s not something you see in store-bought milk, because that milk has been pasteurized.

Gently shake your bottles to mix the fat back in before feeding. The separation of milk fat is not a sign that your breast milk has gone bad. Guidelines for Offering Breast Milk. Breast milk does not have to be warmed to give to your baby. It can be offered cold or at room temperature.

1. Your baby may prefer warm breast milk, because the temperature of milk from your breast is warmer.
2. Try to start out by feeding your infant bottles that are closer to room temperature to see if she minds.
3. If your baby prefers warm milk, purchase a bottle warmer instead of using boiling water or a microwave to heat it up.

Bottle warmers are safer. They are specifically designed for warming a baby’s milk and provide a more consistent temperature. Test the warmth of your child’s milk on the back of your hand before offering the bottle to your baby. If it feels too warm on your wrist, it could burn their mouth.

Use breast milk within 24 hours of thawing it from the freezer. Once you’ve taken breast milk out of the fridge and either warmed it up or allowed it to come to room temperature, it should be used within 2 hours. 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. These guidelines are important. Bacteria can begin to grow in your breast milk if it is left out too long. Babies are much more sensitive to the dangers posed by bacteria, because their immune systems haven’t yet had the chance to build up antibodies used to fight off illness and infection.

Opportunity to Bond with Baby. There is a misconception that you cannot bond with your baby as well when offering bottles instead of milk directly from your breast. This is not true. Hold your baby close when you give bottles and make eye contact while feeding. Talk to them with a soft voice as another way to enhance the bonding experience of feeding.

Offering in bottles allows everyone in your family an opportunity to establish a connection with your baby. Encourage the father, siblings, and grandparents to hold and feed your baby with expressed breast milk in bottles. Your baby will feel more closely connected with each member of your family. © 2023 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved. : Is It Safe to Reuse Breast Milk?

What happens to warmed breastmilk after 2 hours?

Per the CDC: Once breast milk is brought to room temperature or warmed after storing in the refrigerator or freezer, it should be used within 2 hours. The reasoning here is that bacteria starts to grow more quickly when the milk is warmed.

Can you reuse breast milk if baby doesn’t finish bottle?

Recommendations for Leftover Breast Milk – Most lactation consultants encourage people to use common sense here. Think about the sandwich you had for lunch. If you only ate half, you might refrigerate it and have the rest for dinner, but you probably wouldn’t want to eat it for lunch the next day.

The same goes for breast milk. If, after feeding your baby, you’re left with half or a quarter of a bottle, you can reuse it, but only if you’re going to do so quite soon. The CDC advises reusing leftover breast milk within two hours of the last feeding. If it’s longer than two hours, you should throw it away.

Do not freeze and reuse later.

Can I refrigerate an unfinished bottle of breastmilk?

Q&A: Using leftover breast milk? There isn’t any conclusive evidence on whether or not this is safe, but some experts (and lots of moms) say it’s okay to stick an unfinished bottle back in the fridge to reheat and reuse at the next feeding. (If baby doesn’t drink it all at the next feeding, toss it.) The general guideline is: Don’t leave an unfinished bottle sitting around at room temperature for more than 30 minutes to an hour, if at all.

But there isn’t definitive research on the safety of this either.) If you’re finding that you have leftover milk on a regular basis, take this as a cue to make smaller bottles. Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such.

You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional about your specific circumstances. : Q&A: Using leftover breast milk?

What to do with breast milk that baby didn t finish?

What is the recommended method to store and serve breast milk that is leftover from a feeding? – If your baby did not finish the bottle, the leftover breast milk can still be used within 2 hours after the baby is finished feeding. After 2 hours, leftover breast milk should be thrown away.

Why can’t you add warm breast milk to cold?

What Do Experts Say About Mixing Warm and Cold Breastmilk? – One of the first resources moms find about mixing breastmilk is the CDC. On, they explain that it is not advised to mix freshly expressed and already-chilled breastmilk. This is because warm milk can increase the temperature of cold milk, leading to bacteria growth.

How many times can you reheat expressed breast milk?

Do not refreeze thawed breastmilk or heat it more than once. Offer small amounts of EBM at a time to your baby to avoid wastage. Any EBM that your baby doesn’t take at that time will need to be thrown away.

Can babies drink cold breast milk?

1. Is it okay for babies to drink cold milk? – Breastfed babies receive milk directly from their breasts at body temperature (about 37°C). Babies who are formula-fed or bottle-fed are usually slightly warmed, but sometimes families feed babies with formula that has cooled to room temperature or even just taken it out of the fridge.

• Scientists have proven that temperature does not affect the nutritional composition of milk, babies can drink cold milk.
• It’s actually not as important as using the right mix of water and formula (bottle-fed babies) and properly storing breast milk (breastfed babies).
• In addition, breastfeeding milk that is cold, just a little warm or just taken out of the refrigerator will be simpler and more convenient for parents in the middle of the night.

It is important to note that cow’s milk should never be given to a baby, whether warm or cold. Cow’s milk is not suitable for children under the age of 1, you only have two options: formula or breast milk. Trẻ sơ sinh uống sữa nguội có sao không là vấn đề được nhiều mẹ bỉm sữa quan tâm

What are the rules for reheating breast milk?

How to handle and store breast milk For moms returning to work or just ready for a bit of flexibility in their breastfeeding routine, understanding how to safely store and reheat pumped breast milk is important. With all the work that goes into building a stockpile of breast milk, you’ll want to make sure that all those nutrients and immunity-boosting properties are properly preserved.

1. You can do that by following best practices for storing and reheating breast milk.
2. Choose the oldest milk to thaw first.
3. Frozen milk should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator.
4. You can also place it under a slow, steady stream of cool running water.
5. To heat the milk, slowly increase the temperature of the running water to bring it to feeding temperature.

If you’re reheating milk that’s been refrigerated, use warm running water to take off the chill. You can also heat a pot of water on the stovetop, and place the bottle or bag into the water. Don’t heat the breast milk directly on the stovetop, and never make breast milk hot enough to boil.

If you’re using refrigerated milk, you might try offering it to your baby before warming. Some babies are fine with cool milk. Never use a microwave to heat breast milk. Some research suggests that microwaving breast milk may decrease some of its nutritional content. There’s also a risk of scalding because microwaves heat liquids unevenly, which can cause hot spots within the container.

These hot spots could burn your baby as you’re feeding them. Note that refrigerated breast milk may look separated, with a thin cream layer on top and a watery milk layer beneath. This doesn’t mean that the milk has spoiled or gone bad. Just gently swirl the container or massage the bag to redistribute the cream before feeding your baby.

Thawed milk may sometimes have a soapy odor or taste, which is caused by the milk fats breaking down. This milk is still safe to feed to your baby, though there is a possibility that they won’t drink it. If that’s the case, try reducing the length of time you store your expressed milk. According to La Leche League, pumped breast milk should be frozen or refrigerated immediately after expressing.

Store your expressed breast milk in 2- to 4-ounce amounts in milk storage bags, or glass or stiff-plastic containers with tops that fit tightly. Note that milk storage bags are specially designed for expressed breast milk. Don’t substitute standard kitchen storage bags or disposable bottle liners.

Not only are these bags less durable and prone to leaking, the risk of contamination is higher. Some types of plastics can destroy the nutrients in breast milk, too. Before sealing, squeeze out the air in the bag. If you use plastic bottles, be sure to avoid containers that have BPA (bisphenol A). These containers can be identified with a 3 or a 7 in the recycling symbol.

Instead, opt for those made with polypropylene, which will have a 5 in the recycling symbol, or the letters PP. If you’re worried about the leaching potential of chemicals from any plastic container, opt for glass. Before putting breast milk into any container, make sure to wash it with hot, soapy water.

• Rinse well, and leave to air dry before using it.
• Or, use a dishwasher.
• Take a moment to inspect your containers before adding milk.
• Never use a bottle that looks damaged in any way, and discard any milk that has been stored in a damaged container.
• Make sure you also always wash your hands before expressing or handling breast milk.

When filling containers, leave space at the top. Breast milk expands as it freezes, so leaving about an inch at the top will allow for this expansion. Label your bags or containers with the date expressed and the amount of milk. Also write your child’s name if you may be giving it to a child care provider.

1. Store your bags or containers with expressed breast milk at the back of the refrigerator or freezer.
2. That’s where the air will stay the most consistently cool.
3. If you’re using bags, put them into another sealed container for storage.
4. If you have freshly expressed milk, the Mayo Clinic advises that you can add it to refrigerated or frozen milk if you expressed it earlier in the same day.

If you do so, make sure to allow the newly expressed milk to cool in the fridge before adding it to the already chilled or frozen milk. Adding warm breast milk to frozen milk can cause the frozen milk to thaw slightly, which can increase chances of contamination.

Freshly expressed breast milk can keep at room temperature for up to six hours, though it’s considered optimal to use it or properly store it within four hours. Note that if a room is exceptionally warm, four hours should be the limit.Breast milk that has just been expressed can be kept in an insulated cooler with ice packs for up to 24 hours.Freshly expressed breast milk can be stored in the back of the refrigerator for up to five days. However, it’s considered optimal to use or freeze appropriately within three days.Breast milk that has just been expressed can be stored in a deep freezer for up to one year. Use within six months is considered optimal (you can store breast milk in a normal freezer for three to six months).

There are a few things to keep in mind when storing breast milk. First, the longer it’s stored in either the fridge or the freezer, the more vitamin C is lost from the milk. Second, breast milk that you expressed when your baby was a newborn won’t meet their needs in the same way when they’re even a few months older.

However, properly stored breast milk is always a healthy choice for your baby. Note that storage and reheating guidelines for breast milk can vary if you have a baby who is preterm, sick, or in the hospital. In these instances, speak with a lactation consultant and your doctor. Jessica has been a writer and editor for over 10 years.

Following the birth of her first son, she left her advertising job to begin freelancing. Today, she writes, edits, and consults for a great group of steady and growing clients as a work-at-home mom of four, squeezing in a side gig as a fitness co-director for a martial arts academy.

What happens to breast milk after 4 hours?

– Milk that’s stored for longer periods of time than mentioned above in either the fridge or the freezer will lose greater amounts of vitamin C, Also be aware that a woman’s breast milk is tailored to her baby’s needs. In other words, your breast milk changes as your baby grows.

1. If breast milk is left out after being used for a feeding, you may wonder whether it can be used for a subsequent feeding.
2. Milk storage guidelines recommend discarding leftover breast milk after two hours because of the potential for bacterial contamination from your baby’s mouth.
3. And remember, freshly pumped milk that has been left unrefrigerated for longer than four hours should be thrown away, regardless of whether it’s been used in a feeding or not.

Previously frozen milk should be used within 24 hours once thawed and refrigerated. If left on the counter, throw out after 2 hours.

Can you shake breast milk?

Swirled or shaken? Does shaking actually damage milk – the scientific evidence (Repost from 2014) Perhaps one of the most widespread pieces of advice women expressing milk will hear is about the best way to remix milk after expression. Human milk separates after expression (Figure 1) and needs to be remixed before feeding. Figure 1: Milk samples (1.5 mL) from 3 different mothers allowed to separate to show the variation in milk fat. Photo: EA Quinn Unsurprisingly, this is another place where there is plenty of advice given to mothers. And the advice is surprisingly strict: swirl, never shake.

As an anthropologist and a bench scientist, I am always interested in the natural history of advice, Where did this advice to swirl, never shake, come from? Upon investigation, I found 3 primary reasons given for why expressed milk should be swirled, never shaken:1) Shaking denatures proteins2) Swirling helps to remove fat globules stuck to the side of the container3) Shaking damages cells.

But, like many before me, I can’t find any actual scientific evidence. I started with PubMed, the national, searchable database of scientific literature ( Figure 2). Figure 2: Screenshot of my PubMed search for shaking breast milk. Stirring breast milk looked similar, but with less hits. None were relevant. Image: EA Quinn. Here is what I found – and how I went about trying to solve this issue. Let’s start with #1: shaking denatures proteins.

There are many, many different types of proteins in human milk and these are highly variable in size. In addition to size variations, there are also going to be major differences in the way in which proteins are folded – with denaturing being the unfolding of these proteins. There are no published papers on this topic.

Since the literature was not an option, I turned instead, to math and physics. The idea that shaking denatures proteins is based on the shear force the proteins would be exposed to during shaking. We need two pieces of information here: what level of force is generated by shaking and what level of force denatures proteins.

1. Several reference values for the shear force necessary to denature proteins were available in the literature.
2. Most data however, were based on experimental models of the protein in isolation, when micro-tweezers could be used to literally rip the protein apart.
3. This model is not valid here – what we need is a measure of the shear force necessary to denature a protein in a liquid medium.

Again, we don’t have any studies in human milk, so we will have to substitute water as a medium – and given the composition of human milk, this is a reasonable substitute. In a highly viscous medium, similar to milk, α-amylase (a protein involved in starch digestion found in breast milk), requires a force of 3 x 10^4 Pa to denature the protein.

• Proteins with beta folds, it is estimated, would be much more resistant to shear force.
• The predicted force (in a highly viscous medium) necessary to shear a beta protein would be 2 x 10^5 to 10^7 Pa.
• So how much force can a human arm generate? Again, there is no direct measurement for a human shaking a highly viscous medium (but there is plenty of data on ketchup).

If you’ve goggled this (or seen Mythbusters) you know an elite boxer can punch with 5000 pounds of force, or more than 22,000 Newtons. Figure 3: The action of boxing, as demonstrated by Tatum and Homer Simpson, is very, very different than the action of shaking breast milk in a container. But boxing, pitching, and shaking are very different actions – and this causes some interesting differences in the way in which force must be calculated.

When you pitch or punch, the entire body is involved in the action. Punching involves rotation at the waist, shoulder, and elbow. Pitching involves the same rotation, plus the fingers. But shaking is typically done with a stationary shoulder and body and the primary point of movement at the elbow. This is going to limit the force the arm is generating – and the forces extended to the container.

The best analogy in the literature for shaking a container is, remarkably, swinging a hammer, as the hammer swing comes mostly from the elbow. Even a hammer swing is probably an over-estimation, as the shoulder may be involved. The average speed for swinging a hammer is 4 meters per second, with maximum times closer to 10 meters per second.

1. The average hammer weights about 3 pounds – the average container of breast milk will weigh a little bit more than 4 ounces.
2. Now, one thing about a liquid medium is that the forces within the fluid may vary considerably – but it is still unlikely that the human arm will generate enough force through shaking to damage the proteins.

Earlier studies (Thomas and Dunnill 1979) reported that proteins were often stable under shear forces exceeding 9000 s-1 for more than 15 hours. One additional factor serves to protect the proteins in human milk, particularly those proteins that are hormones or immune factors rather than more nutritional proteins.

• We know for example, that many of the hormone proteins are bioactive infant circulation, and thus survive digestion in the infant stomach.
• Many of these protein hormones are found in a glycosylated form – that is, with the protein has added sugars attached to it that protect the protein structure and serve to reduce the risk of denaturing.

Other proteins may be packaged within the membrane bound fat globules, which will further act to protect the proteins from damage. Skipping ahead to #3 – shaking damages cells – the math from above remains important. Again, it is unlikely that the human arm is capable of generating enough force to damage the cells in the milk.

Most of the research looking at shear forces and cell damage uses a platelet cell model (Christi 2001). Platelets are not found in human milk, and are also more prone to cell damage and death than many of the other cells commonly found in human milk. Again, human milk specific data are not available – except for spinning in a centrifuge – and we are substituting a leukocyte model for the reference cell.

Moazzam et al., (1997), in a study of leukocytes exposed to shear forces in a rat model, found that leukocytes incurred very little damage from shear forces. Breast milk cells are likely exposed to high shear force at multiple points in their normal life course – from milk ejection to swallowing to digestion, and may be more resistant to cell damage (Papoutsakis 1991).

Concern #2: Swirling helps remove the fat stuck to the side of the container. Again, there are no available data. However, in a study of ultrasonic mixing versus stirring, Garcia-Lara et al., (2013) found that samples mixed by ultrasonic waves had higher fat, suggesting that the ultrasonic mixing was better at removing fat adhering to the sides of the container compared to manual mixing.

Current research protocols for measuring milk fat in samples have used multiple inversion techniques to mix milk to ensure adequate mixing – and inversion is a lot closer to shaking than swirling. So what is the final verdict? There is no published evidence to support that shaking actually damages breast milk when compared to swirling.

• Many of the issues identified with shaking are better described as myths, and simply do not hold up when the actual shear forces are calculated.
• Certainly, it would be awesome if we could do an in depth study of this – have women swirl and shake milk with sensors on the hand and in the milk cup and actually measure the acceleration of the hand and then analyze the milk.

I suspect however, that we wouldn’t find much damage. Sarah and I were discussing the origins of this myth while I was working on this post over the last several days. She made a really excellent point about this myth – “Really I think it’s just one more way to make breastfeeding seem super hard and easy to mess up.” And it seems to be one piece of advice that while well meaning, may contribute to the persistent idea that human milk is fragile, easily damaged, and requires a high degree of care.

It serves as one more perceived “threat” mothers (and fathers and caregivers) pose to human milk – the “if you aren’t careful, you’ll damage it and you can’t damage formula*” underlying subtext that serves to undermine breastfeeding mothers. *see all the recalls and allowable insect parts; also a recent paper showing that formula may be incorrectly prepared as much as 30% of the time.

EA’S NOTES FOUR YEARS LATER (2018): To date, no one has tested if shaking or stirring and the impact on milk. This post generated numerous comments the first time it was posted and originally contained more calculations. I received no less than ten comments on the force calculations telling me I had done them incorrectly and offering new calculations.

There was no agreement between the calculations, so I offer only the basic math in this post. A few mothers wrote in that the shaking recommendation was to avoid aerating/putting air bubbles into the milk that could cause gas. However, as this would also be a concern with infant formula (and I couldn’t find any studies looking at this either), I left this out of the discussion above, mainly focusing on the 3 key issues that seemed to come up over and over.

References Bee JS, Stevenson JL, Mehta B, Svitel J, Pollastrini J, Platz R, Freund E, Carpenter JF, Randolph TW. Response of a concentrated monoclonal antibody formulation to high shear. Biotechnol Bioeng.2009 Aug 1;103(5):936-43. doi: 10.1002/bit.22336.

Yusuf Chisti. Hydrodynamic Damage to Animal Cells Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 21(2):67–110 (2001). García-Lara NR, Escuder-Vieco D, García-Algar O, De la Cruz J, Lora D, Pallás-Alonso C. Effect of freezing time on macronutrients and energy content of breastmilk. Breastfeed Med.2012 Aug;7:295-301.

doi: 10.1089/bfm.2011.0079. Jaspe J, Hagen SJ. Do protein molecules unfold in a simple shear flow? Biophysical Journal.2006;91(9):3415–3424. Moazzam F1, DeLano FA, Zweifach BW, Schmid-Schönbein GW. The leukocyte response to fluid stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.1997 May 13;94(10):5338-43.

Papoutsakis ET. Fluid-mechanical damage of animal cells in bioreactors. Trends Biotechnol.1991 Dec;9(12):427-37. Physics@ UNWA. Smashing bricks and the ballistic pendulum: more collision examples. URL:, Accessed: 8/9/14. Thomas CR, Dunnill P. Action of Shear on Enzymes – Studies with Catalase and Urease. Biotechnology and Bioengineering.1979;21(12):2279–2302.

Thomas CR, Greer D. Effects of shear on proteins in solution. Biotechnology Letters 2010; 33(3) 443-456. DOI : 10.1007/s10529-010-0469-4. van der Veen ME, van Iersel DG, van der Goot AJ, Boom RM. Shear-induced inactivation of alpha-amylase in a plain shear field.

How often should I be pumping?

Most mothers find that pumping every 2-3 hours maintains their milk supply and does not cause them to become uncomfortably full.

Can I pump into the same bottle all day?

How to combine breastmilk from different pumping sessions – To reduce the chances of bacterial growth, freshly pumped breastmilk should first be chilled to the same temperature as the milk stored in the bottle. Adding warm breastmilk to older, previously chilled breastmilk can increase the chances of bacterial growth.

How long can breastmilk be left in bottle?

Storing breast milk – You can store breast milk in a sterilised container or in special breast milk storage bags:

in the fridge for up to 8 days at 4C or lower (you can buy fridge thermometers online) – if you’re not sure of the temperature of your fridge, or it is higher than 4C, use it within 3 daysfor 2 weeks in the ice compartment of a fridgefor up to 6 months in a freezer, if it’s -18C or lower

Breast milk that’s been cooled in the fridge can be carried in a cool bag with ice packs for up to 24 hours. Storing breast milk in small quantities will help avoid waste. If you’re freezing it, make sure you label and date it first.

Should babies finish every bottle?

Be guided by your baby – All babies are different. Your baby will know how much milk they need. Some want to feed more often than others. Just follow your baby’s lead. Feed your baby when they seem hungry and do not worry if they do not finish the bottle.

Can you reuse bottles and nipples for second baby?

Bottles – As long as they’re not broken or warped, bottles are fine to reuse. You’ll just need to buy some new teats.

How do I know if my baby drank spoiled breast milk?

3. How dangerous are the effects of feeding a baby with spoiled, expired breast milk? – Newborns have very weak digestive systems and poor resistance, so if parents are not careful to breastfeed their babies, spoiled or overdue breast milk will cause certain dangers to the baby.

Some common consequences can be mentioned: Diarrhea: Similar to adults eating expired food, digestive disorders; Babies fed spoiled breast milk may develop diarrhea soon after. Vomiting: In addition to abdominal pain, vomiting is also a sign of digestive disorders, both in adults and infants. Stomach cramps: Babies using spoiled, expired, or lumpy breast milk can cause stomach cramps, bloating, bloating, upset stomach, and fussiness.

Food poisoning: Often spoiled breast milk will be contaminated, causing the infant to be infected with bacteria and have diarrhea and vomiting. More dangerous is causing food poisoning, which can be dangerous to children’s lives.

How do I know if my breast milk went bad?

Assuming that you’ve made sure your pump equipment is clean, after pumping or expressing some milk, smell it and taste it. Does it smell or taste sour, or does it smell fine and taste a bit sweet? If it does smell or taste sour, then it indicates the presence of rancid fats and chemical oxidation.

Can I combine breast milk from different days?

A question I’ve been getting more and more is whether is it okay to combine breast milk from different days. Here’s some background on where that question is coming from, and what different sources tell us. I read this article, and it says that you can’t combine breast milk from different days? Is this true? Why would this be? I’m not really sure. The linked VeryWell article says: It is not safe to add breast milk that you pumped today to a container of breast milk that you pumped yesterday or last week.

Personally, I’ve combined milk from different days many times. I assumed this was safe based on what I’d read on Kellymom when my first baby was brand new: Milk from different pumping sessions/days may be combined in one container – use the date of the first milk expressed. It’s a little unclear what the VeryWell article means, exactly.

It says it is okay to mix milk you pumped on the same day, but not different days. I’m assuming that the author means milk pumped more than 24 hours apart? Or is she saying that if you pump at 10pm on a Saturday and 1am on a Sunday, as is typical for an exclusive pumper, that that’s not safe to mix? (The implication being that breast milk is affected like Gremlins by the hour of midnight, or something?) The VeryWell article doesn’t explain WHY this wouldn’t be safe, so I checked the two cited sources to try to find the explanation.

• One was the CDC, which says nothing about mixing milk from other days.
• On the contrary – it actually talks about how to mix milk from different days.) The other is a scientific article from 2013 that is behind a medical journal paywall; a reader with access was kind enough to send me a copy.
• It also does not say anything about mixing milk from different days.

So now I have no idea how to answer this question, except to say that, while I am not a medical professional, I’m not sure why mixing milk from different days would be a problem as long as:

All of the milk that is mixed is within breastmilk storage guidelines, and You treat all of the mixed milk as if it was pumped at the time of the first expressed milk, and The milk you’re mixing is the same temperature (adding warm milk to cold milk can allow bacteria to grow more quickly)

Maybe VeryWell’s recommendation comes from a concern that moms just won’t, in practice, treat all of the mixed milk as if it was pumped at the time of the first expressed milk? I’m struggling to come up with another explanation. For now, in the absence of additional information, I would suggest using Kellymom’s guidance for combining breast milk from different days.

Can you reheat breast milk after it’s been reheated once?

Can you reheat breast milk? – Yes, it’s okay to reheat breast milk but you should do so only ONCE and be sure to use up or discard the breast milk within 2 hours of the first warming.

Why can’t you add warm breast milk to cold?

What Do Experts Say About Mixing Warm and Cold Breastmilk? – One of the first resources moms find about mixing breastmilk is the CDC. On, they explain that it is not advised to mix freshly expressed and already-chilled breastmilk. This is because warm milk can increase the temperature of cold milk, leading to bacteria growth.

How many times can breastmilk be reheated?

Can You Reheat Breast Milk? – The short answer is yes, it is safe to reheat breast milk, but you can only do so once. Reheating destroys good bacteria and nutrients found in breast milk. Furthermore, it is best to reheat that same milk within four hours because bacteria from your baby’s mouth could contaminate it.

What happens if baby drinks breast milk that sat out too long?

What Happens If You Leave Breast Milk Out for 4 Hours—or More? – Most parents err on the side of caution and go with the four hour CDC rule. Dr. Madden says that how long to leave milk out also depends on the health of your baby. “I typically recommend that breast milk be tossed out if it’s been at room temperature for more than six to eight hours, and to only give breast milk that’s been out for between four to eight hours to healthy, full-term babies,” she says.

• This is because premature infants are at a higher risk of infection due to having immature immune systems.” However many hours your milk has been left out, Dr.
• Madden says that a little common sense goes a long way.
• Breast milk should be thrown out if it smells or tastes like it is spoiled, no matter how long it’s been at room temperature,” she says.

Dr. Ferry agrees with this sentiment. “If milk smells sour, it has gone bad and should definitely be dumped,” she says. “One of the risks of breastmilk left out too long is growth of bacteria, which can’t be detected on visual inspection.” There isn’t a specific appearance, for example, or color of milk that denotes it’s “bad.” But milk that’s left out too long can result in vomiting or diarrhea in your baby, Dr.

• Ferry adds.
• Leslie Owens, RN, IBCLC at Mother Nurture Maternity, recommends staying within the four hour range when it comes to how long to leave milk out, because of the risk of bacterial contamination.
• If you truly want to avoid wasting milk that was left out, you can also store and save it to use in baby’s bath water as a milk bath,” she recommends.

“Many believe that breast milk has many benefits for the skin.”