Warming up stored milk is one of the best ways to keep up with the consistency of breastfeeding your baby. Babies are naturally used to the warm milk coming from their mothers and might reject any milk that is not in this state. For this reason, knowing how to warm breast milk from the freezer is essential if you are the type of mom who expresses to feed on a later day.
This process makes your baby’s food readily available in your absences, ensuring that the right nutrient for your baby’s mental and physical growth is available. There are different ways to warm up breast milk, either at home or on the go.
But the best way to warm up breast milk is by putting the stored milk into a bowl or mug of warm water and leave for 1 or 2 minutes to bring the milk to the body temperature. Before serving your baby, test the temperature by pouring a bit of the milk at the back of your hand or wrist; the milk should be warm and not hot.
Alternatively, you can use a bottle warmer. Doing this will save you the stress of breastfeeding in public or having your baby with you now and then, especially if you are a busy mom.
How To Warm Up Breast Milk
Without further ado, here are the steps to warm up stored breast milk either on the go or at home.
- Warm water and pour into bowl or mug
- Put your stored milk into a bowl or mug of warm water. The milk should be in a sealed bottle or bag during this process.
- Leave the milk in the mug or bowl for 1 to 2 minutes until the milk reaches the desired temperature.
- Transfer the breast milk from the milk bag into a bottle, if it is in a bottle already, replace the cover with a bottle nipple.
- Swirl the bottle, (do not shake) to mix separated fat if any.
- Before serving this golden milk to your baby, test the breast milk temperature by pouring some of the milk at the back of your hand or wrist. The milk should be warm not.
- Alternatively, you can use a bottle warmer to warm thawed or frozen breast milk.
IF you are on the go, you can make use of hot water from your flask to warm up the breast milk. While doing this, avoid dipping your hand into the milk, to prevent contaminating the milk.
Before warming your breast milk, there is a need to defrost the milk if stored in a freezer. This needs to be done properly to ensure your baby safe. This can be done normally with the fridge which takes a longer time.
How to defrost breast milk for instant use
The best and fastest way to defrost frozen milk is thus highlighted below:
- Hold a bag or bottle of frozen milk under warm running water with a minimum of 37 degrees centigrade. Do not leave the milk to defrost at from temperature.
- Or use a bottler warmer, this is another easy and fast process of defrosting your milk, however, you have to be careful when setting the heat
- Once this milk has fully defrosted, this milk can only be kept at room temperature for a maximum of two hours.
- Don’t heat frozen milk in boiling water or microwave. This can create a hot spot in the milk that can scald your baby and also damage its protective and nutritional properties.
- Defrost milk left at room temperature should be fed to the baby within two hours or thrown away.
- Do not re-freeze a thawed milk.
After the milk is towed, you can then follow the process of warming the breast milk listed above. You can also use this method to heat frozen milk from the freezer, how this will take loner process usually within 10 to 15 minutes depending on how hot the water is.
How to warm breast milk on the go
You yo have thawed or frozen milk with you while spending some time outdoor side, you can also warm such type of milk and make it edible for your baby again. The opportunity to use a bottle warmer or boil water is not available while on the go. But you can have a flask f warm water with you. Whit this you can make your stored milk warm and edible again for your baby.
To warm breast milk on the go.
- Always have a flask of warm water with you,
- Pour warm water from the flask into another container
- Put thawed milk into the container and cover
- Allow the milk to sit for 3-5 minutes or when it reaches your desired temperature, which must be the body temperature.
- You can now serve your milk when you are sure it is not too hot for your baby to consume.
How long does breast milk last in the fridge
After expressing or pumping your breast into a milk bag, container or bottle, the next thing is to preserve them for later consumption by the baby. The container or bottle should possess a tight-fitting lid to ensure the milk is securely preserved. When this ensured, there two major ways of preserving expressed mill, which involves using a fridge or a freezer.
- Milk can be stored in a fridge or refrigerator for up to four days or
- In the freezer for up to 6 months. Although freezing keeps food safe for an unlimited period of time, with this you can extend the storage period to a maximum of 12 months.
- And at a room temperature of 25 degrees celsius.
When storing your breast milk, avoid using a container or bag that BPA free to keep your baby safe.
How long does breast milk last at room temperature
An expressed breast milk that is not stored or yet to be served can last at room temperature of 25 degrees celsius for up to 4 hours and a minimum of 2 hours. If the milk exceeds this time frame, it should be thrown away. However, you can preserve such milk by putting it in a freezer or a fridge before the time elapses. Other tips for leaving expressed milk at room temperature include
- After expressing your milk, place a lid over the bottle or container, and if you are using a milk bag, seal it off immediately.
- Keep the breast milk away from direct sunlight, heat and window
- The room temperature should not be over 25 degrees Celsius or 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The cooler the room temperature the better.
- If the room temperature is over the stated degrees, don’t let your milk sit out at all. Put in an insulated cooler with ice packs or in the refrigerator instantly.
- Put a cold towel over the container or bag to keep the milk chilly.
Bacterial growth in breast milk that is left at room temperature can be dangerous to premature children because they have a weak immune system. For this reason, this can only be fed to healthy and full-time babies.
How to store breast milk in fridge
As an exclusive pumper, it is necessary, to know how to store your breast milk appropriately. This will help keep track of your milk and avoid and keep them in the right condition. Keeping track of stored milk will reduce the amount of unused milk you will have to discard. So to store ou breast milk and keep track of milk stored, always follow the highlighted points.
- Make sure the container or bag to hold the expressed milk is clean and sterilized
- After expressing, always label each container with the expressed date
- Use older stored milk to reduce discarding unused expressed milk.
- Do not add fresh breast milk to an already stored or frozen breast milk
- Breast milk store in the fridge should not be more than four days
- While it can be stored in the freezer for 6 to 12 months. However, after 90 days, the acidity level in breast milk can rise. For this reason, it is ideal not to keep breast milk for more than 6 months.
While frozen breast milk can be stored for a long period, refrigerated breast milk is better, because it is fresh and the nutrients and anti-bodies are still intact and will be the most current for the baby’s needs.
Can you reuse previously heated breast milk?
This has been a question by many exclusive pumping moms. Do not reuse previously heated breast milk for any reason. Probably, after warming up frozen breast milk your baby did not finish it. Once it is over 2 hours do not feed your baby this milk again, it is better to throw it away and keep your baby safe.
This type of milk is prone to germs and can be contaminated easily. For this reason, do no re-freeze previously heated milk so you can feed your baby again. Note the safety precautions below
- Do not restore or reheat breast milk that was previously warmed.
- Any thawed or heated breast milk should be disposed of after two hours of sitting at room temperature
- Also, do not reuse any heater breast milk after 2 hours at room temperature.