New Guidelines to Know for Storing Breast Milk, Human Milk

The following is a summary of information on milk storage guidelines that you will want to be sure read and understand.  A welcome new change was acknowledging that warm milk can be mixed with cold milk.

The APP acknowledges that milk is a living, biologic substance, full of good bacteria and probiotics and should be handled appropriately.  Recommendations include:

• Hand washing prior to handling milk
• Using new or clean containers
• Minimizing milk transfers, which leaves fats and calories behind
• Pump/express directly into the storage container (plastic or glass containers are both adequate)
• Parents can mix warm milk with cod milk and can pool milk from a 24 hour period. Pooling milk helps even out nutrient variability that may result from the time the milk was expressed or how much the breast was emptied.
• Raw (fresh refrigerated) milk maintains more nutrient value than frozen milk. After four hours at room temp or four days in the refrigerator, milk should be frozen.
• Frozen milk can be stored for up to 12 months, the colder the better.
• Treating milk that contains lipase, which is often unpalatable to infants, by scalding before freezing is a preferable option to formula.

In the same article – the AAP provides a robust and useful list of resources to share with parents, and I noticed many of my favorites on the list.

If you’re a new parent, new to bodyfeeding, or currently feeding your baby human milk, check out the updated FAQ to make sure you’re following the most current recommendations around human milk and bodyfeeding.

*Bodyfeeding refers to feeding babies with your body, also known as breastfeeding and chestfeeding. The term bodyfeeding is inclusive of all parents. 

About Sharon Muza

Sharon Muza, BS, CD/BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, LCE,  has been an active perinatal professional since 2004, teaching Lamaze classes to thousands of families and doula-ing in Seattle, WA. Sharon is also a trainer of new birth doulas and childbirth educators. She blogs professionally on perinatal topics and is the community manager for Connecting the Dots, Lamaze International’s perinatal professional blog. Sharon enjoys facilitating discussion around best practice, current research and its practical application to maternal infant health and community standards. She also loves creating and delivering engaging and interactive learning sessions both in person and online. You can learn more about Sharon, on her website, SharonMuza.com.