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Pumped Milk Storage 10/10/2019
When pumping milk and beginning the process of storing it for the future, it is often helpful to know that it is a pretty hardy substance with a lot of wiggle room. There are varying thoughts on leaving milk out, but I follow the rule of 6 to be on the safe side. You can leave breast milk out for 6 hours at room temperature. If you are using thawed breast milk, this reduces to 1-2 hours and you can’t refreeze thawed breast milk unless there are still quite a bit of ice crystals in the milk. In the refrigerator breast milk is good for 6 days, but you will notice the fat will form on top. Swirl the milk to get it to mix back into the milk. In the side by side freezer, breast milk can be kept for 6 months. A deep freezer you can go up to 12 months and still be ok. The milk doesn’t go bad in the freezer, but at some point the proteins in the milk begin to break down and the benefit begins to decrease. Does that mean you can’t use that bag that you found from 2 years ago at the bottom of the freezer yesterday? No! Throw that in a nice milk bath to soothe a diaper rash or skin irritation. If you are super fancy you can make some lotion or soap with it for baby.
The CDC recommends a rule of 4 with breastmilk. https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/recommendations/handling_breastmilk.htm
https://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/milkstorage/milkstorage/