Storing breast milk is always a confusing task for many mothers. Especially if you are a working mother and will have to get back to work too soon, then you need to make sure that you extract milk and store it properly for your baby. You need to be very careful while doing this as newborn babies have less immunity levels and proper care is always important. So, here are some dos and Don’ts related to breast milk storage.
Do’s:
- The first thing that you need to do is make sure that you are extracting milk every day before going to work. That will help in making sure that the baby gets enough milk throughout the day. Mother’s milk is very essential for the baby and so make sure there is enough stored milk.
- Always make sure that you are labeling the breast milk bottles with both date and time. That will help in using the oldest ones first. This is the right way to use the extracted or stored breast milk.
- It is very important to take care of personal hygiene while extracting milk. The breast pump should always be cleaned well.
- Make sure to wash the breast pump with hot water, and then sterilize them before you start using it for the next time.
- Whether you are just handling the storage bottles or extracting the milk, it is very important to make sure that you are washing your hands properly. That will help in keeping the breast milk safe for the baby to consume.
- Everything related to breast milk storage should be kept in a clean place so that there is fewer bacteria development in the place.
Don’ts:
- To make sure that the breast milk remains safe for the baby to consume, you should never store them in plastic bottles. They are not designed for storing for a long time.
- You should never add fresh breast milk to the hot milk. It can be added to the refrigerated milk, but just make sure that it was extracted on the same day.
- When you freeze the milk, it will expand and hence you will have to make sure that there is enough room in the bottle for it to expand when you store it.
- Never defrost the stored breast milk in an oven. You can either place the bottle under running water or in a warm place if you need the milk in a hurry.
- Any breast milk that is left in the feeding bottle should be thrown away once you are done feeding the baby.
- The frozen bottle should always be dried from outside and then used. You should not heat the frozen bottle in any way.
- Never leave the milk at room temperature for a long time as it can get spoiled and feeding that milk to the baby can cause several health issues.
These are some of the simple dos and don’ts that you need to follow during breast milk storage.
Hina Abbasi is Editor and a passionate sports and entertainment content writer at WinnersMaze.com. Hina’s expertise spans across a wide range of sports, and interest in many TV shows allowing her to deliver insightful analysis and compelling stories that resonate with readers.