Can I mix breast milk from different pumping sessions? Yes certainly you can combine breastmilk but there are a few guidelines. If you are pumping twice in a day, keep the first milk covered in the fridge. Then when you express again, you will need to use a different bottle and then chill that milk before adding it to the first milk. You should not add your warm breast milk (at
body temperature) to the chilled fridge milk. You need to cool the warm breast milk before you add it to the already chilled milk. If you are expressing over several days, we recommend that you freeze the milk in small quantities to avoid wasting it. Just make sure you cool down your freshly expressed breastmilk before you add it to the frozen stored milk. In other words, if you have 50mls pumped, cool it and then add to the frozen supply for the baby’s feed. Only
add cold milk to cold milk or cold milk to frozen milk. Because you never want to waste breast milk, you might consider freezing it in relatively small amounts for each feed. This way, if your baby doesn’t take it all, you won’t be throwing it out, plus it will be quicker to defrost and warm. Read our suggested How Much Does Baby Drink If your baby does not drink all the milk in one feed – you CANNOT reuse the milk later, you will need to discard it. How much expressed milk will my baby need? @ Storage guidelines
Want to print the above information? Go to Quick Reference CardMore on Milk Storage@
Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Clinical Protocol #8: Human Milk Storage Information for Home Use for Full-Term Infants (March 2010) Why Do Milk Storage Guidelines Differ? by Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FILCA What are the LLLI guidelines for storing my pumped milk? from La Leche League International Storing and transporting breast milk from AskDrSears.com Freezing Your Breastmilk by Paula Yount Rechtman DJ, Lee ML, Berg H. Effect of Environmental conditions on Unpasteurized Donor Human Milk. Breastfeed Med. 2006 Spring;1(1):24-6. Hamosh M, Ellis LA, Pollock DR, Henderson TR, Hamosh P. Breastfeeding and the working mother: effect of time and temperature of short-term storage on proteolysis, lipolysis, and bacterial growth in milk. Pediatrics. 1996 Apr;97(4):492-8. More journal articles on milk storage Reusing expressed breastmilk @ My power went out and I have breastmilk in the freezer – Help! @ Don’t Shake the Milk by Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC. Another source also indicates that shaking has the potential to destroy the protein structure of large proteins in biologically active substances: “…many large proteins cannot be shaken to reconstitute, as shaking can destroy the protein structure” (Morrow T, Felcone LH. Defining the difference: What Makes Biologics Unique. Biotechnol Healthc. 2004;1(4):24-9). How likely is this to be an issue? We don’t know! So far there has not been research done on the bioactive properties of shaken vs. non-shaken breastmilk (fun research project – any takers?). Some feel that the forces required to change the milk are significantly more than could be provided via shaking. Others note that shear forces from shaking are not the only issue–bursting of bubbles caused by shaking may also damage cells or denature proteins. To play it safe, use the smallest amount of force needed to mix the layers, keeping in mind that the layers will mix better as the milk warms. If you do shake the milk, it might not be a problem at all–and even if it turns out that shaking makes a difference it will still be the best nutrition for your child. Travelling with Breast Milk by Robyn Roche-Paull, BSN, RNC-MNN, IBCLC Traveling as a Pumping Mother by Nicole Goodman Packaging and Shipping Frozen Breastmilk from Breastfeeding in Combat Boots Using Dry Ice Safely when Traveling with Breastmilk from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Jeffery SL, Cubison TC, Greenaway C, Gilbert PM, Parkhouse N. Lesson of the week. Warming milk-a preventable cause of scalds in children. BMJ. 2000 Jan 22;320(7229):235. What is normal?Unusual appearances of breastmilk from the Australian Breastfeeding Association My expressed breastmilk doesn’t smell fresh. What can I do? @KellyMom What does breastmilk look like? by Paula Yount Why does my breastmilk change colors? by Anne Smith, IBCLC Common Concerns When Storing Human Milk by Cindy Scott Duke, from New Beginnings, Vol. 15 No. 4, July – August 1998, p. 109 (normal taste & appearance) More information @KellyMom:
Can I mix two different pumping sessions?Yes, it's okay to combine breast milk from different pumping sessions, as long as you cool the milk to the same temperature before mixing them together. Label the container with the age of the oldest milk and store it accordingly.
Can you mix milk from the same pumping session?If you pumped both breasts at once and the total amount of milk will fill one bottle no more than two-thirds full, you may combine the contents in one bottle by carefully pouring the milk from one sterile container into the other. Don't combine milk from different pumping sessions when pumping for a high-risk baby.
Can I pump into the same bottle all day?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.
|