In our section «Ask an expert a question», reader Yana asks:
«At the weekend, we have to leave a 5-month-old child for a grandmother. But it is not possible to immediately express a lot of milk. Is it possible to mix milk expressed during the day in one bottle? Won’t it spoil?»
Ideally, if you express exactly as much as the baby needs in one feeding. But if the right amount has not been collected in one pumping session, pour what you have into a storage container, close the lid and put it in the refrigerator (just not in the freezer!). If you have decanted more, add it to what is already cooling.
You can top up the expressed milk in a bottle within 24 hours!
When you have enough, count 30 minutes from the last increase and move the container to the freezer. If you don’t have enough for one baby meal, freeze as much as you have.
It is important to keep in mind that when freezing milk increases in volume, so it is not recommended to top up the container to the brim. Be sure to put a label with the date of freezing on the finished container.
If you have pumped milk in the morning or afternoon for evening or night feeding, then it is not necessary to put it in the refrigerator. At room temperature (up to +25 ° C), expressed breast milk can be kept on a table or shelf for 6-8 hours, but always in a tightly closed and preferably maximally cooled container, for example, wrapped in a cold towel.
In a refrigerator bag, expressed breast milk at a temperature of +4 to +15 ° C can be kept for 24 hours, and the container should be located next to a cold generator or ice packs, and it is better not to open the bag itself. In the depth of the home refrigerator, for example, at the back wall, at a temperature not higher than + 4 ° C, it is allowed to leave breast milk for 5 days. After that, it is heated and given to the baby.
If you intend to store the expressed breast milk for longer, it needs to be frozen. At the same time, the composition almost does not change — most of the useful substances will remain. The length of stay of breast milk in the freezer depends on its model. If this is the freezer compartment of a single-chamber refrigerator (with a common «entrance» door), then the product can be kept for 2 weeks at temperatures up to -15 ° C. The freezer of a two—chamber refrigerator (with its own door for the freezer) guarantees a lower temperature up to -18 °C and, accordingly, a longer storage period, namely 3-6 months.
