Breast Milk Storage

If you are a mom on the go, and it's time for you to go back to work, you will need a place for proper breast milk storage, so your baby can drink his usual milk even when you're not home. You can store breast milk by refrigeration and freezing, but there are good ways to build up your supply and to store it in the safest way.

Wait to pull extra milk until after the first or second week, when your breasts are giving a good supply, but not to the point of overproduction. If you start pumping a large amount of breast milk and you're already making too much, it may cause your body to continue overproducing.

Once your body is regulated to the needs of your baby, you can find a time that is convenient to pump out extra breast milk, starting with the breast that your baby last drank from. The reasoning here is that not as much milk will have been suckled from that breast. You can pump from both of your breasts after every feeding, too, and store that away for use in the future. Pumping after every feeding is a good way to increase your supply of milk, if you're not producing enough.

If you are looking at breast milk storage for the very next feeding, it can be left at room temperature, for up to four to six hours. If you're away from your little one, and you have breast milk that is stored in a cooler, it will last for up to twenty-four hours.

You can store breast milk safely in a refrigerator for about a week or eight days. If you plan to freeze your breast milk, you can keep it in a small freezer compartment for two weeks or so. If you have a full size freezer, the milk will keep for about three to six months. In a deep freezer, breast milk can be stored for six to twelve months.

A convenient tool that you can use for storing frozen breast milk is a freezer milk tray that is specially designed for storing breast milk. They store one or two ounces in each section, and each milk “stick” can fit into the bottles, so you won't be wasting any. Don't freeze breast milk in ice cube trays, though, as the plastic can break down.

To thaw frozen breast milk, move it from your freezer to the refrigerator and leave it there for about twenty-four hours. You can put it in a bottle and run cool water over it, too. If you choose the second method, increase the water temperature only gradually, until it is barely warm. Parents sometimes think that babies only drink warm breast milk, but they will actually drink it fine, even if it is a bit cool.

Breast milk is the healthiest thing you can give to your baby. If you need to be away for any period of time, then safe breast milk storage is something you need to look into. That supply of breast milk can be crucial to the health of your baby.