Visit Doctors
Visit
Visit
Call Doctors
Call
Call
Ask Doctors
Ask
Ask
Feed
Home
20 years
For how long can I store pumped breast milk and how?
Oct 19, 2014
2nd opinion

Dr. Zakia Dimassi Pediatrics
The best way to preserve your pumped breast milk is by freezing it. You should store it in clean bottles with screw caps or in hard plastic cups that have tight caps. It's recommended that you label each bottle with the date of when the milk was pumped. You can add fresh cooled milk to milk that is already frozen, but add no more than is already in the bottle.

Here's how to proceed:
1- You can store it in the refrigerator: for up to 8 days at 0°-3.9°C
2- You can store it in the freezer (make sure to leave a few centimeters of space at the top of the bottle in order to allow for expansion of the milk when it freezes):
*for up to 2 weeks in a freezer compartment located inside the refrigerator
*for 6 to 12 months in a freezer that's self-contained (separate) and maintained at -18°C.

Store the milk in the back of the freezer, not in the door so as to avoid exposure to ambient temperature with each opening of the freezer.
To thaw frozen milk, you can move it to the refrigerator (it takes 24 hours to thaw), then warm by running warm water over the bottle; you should be using it within the next 24 hours. If you wish to use it immediately, remove it from the freezer and run warm water over it until it reaches room temperature. Do not refreeze it.
Once your baby has drunk from the bottle, the content should be used within 1 hour. If the baby doesn't finish the bottle, you can put it back in the refrigerator, then warm it and use it at the next feeding.

It's not advisable to store the breast milk in large volumes - better store it in 59.1 to 118.2 milliliters portions to avoid waste.

You also need to know that frozen/refrigerated breast milk may have a different color than from fresh breast milk, so expect early breast milk to tend toward orange and the mature milk to look slightly blue, yellow, or brown when refrigerated or frozen. And it may separate into a creamy looking layer and a lighter, more milk-like layer.
 • 
Thank
Book
Disclaimer