Storing Breast Milk

 When you are able to give breast milk to your babies, you should count yourself lucky. This is probably one of the best things you can do as a mother. Enjoy this time to form a close relationship with your newborn and grab the opportunity to hold them whenever you can. As you resume your normal life after you give birth, you may notice that there may be times that you will be asked to leave your home for work. You may not always be there when they get hungry, and while you want to take them everywhere you go, this is just not an option. How can you concentrate on your job when you constantly have to keep an eye on your little one? To be able to cope with the demands, you opt for pumping your milk and storing it. Whenever your baby cries out in hunger, your partner can just grab the milk from the fridge and feed them. 

If you find yourself in situations like this, you will need to know how to store it safely. In today's fast-paced society, it can be difficult for you to constantly find the time to breast feed your child. When you are in a public place, this can also be highly inconvenient. When you find yourself stuck in a situation, the best option for now would be to use expressed breast milk. This involves mechanically squeezing milk from the breast and storing it in a bottle to be used at a later time. You can normally use a pump to squeeze the milk out, and this is especially handy when only the father or the nanny is at home watching your child. 

When stored correctly, the milk can last for quite some time. There are plastic bottles and bags available in the stores that were especially made for holding and storing this kind of nutrition. You can simply put it in the freezer or refrigerator so that you are able to extend its shelf life. However, keeping it in the freezer will make the milk lose some of its nutrients, antibodies, and enzymes. This is what happens to food set aside in the same manner. But what it all comes down to is that it is still much healthier than the formula that you purchase.

To test if the milk is still fresh and safe for your child, you simply have to smell it. You should be able to store it at room temperature as well. However, its shelf life only extends to six or eight hours. Anything over that will be detrimental to your baby’s health. If you’ve followed all the rules but sometimes find that your baby does not respond to it as well as actual breastfeeding, the culprit could be the milk bottle. Your baby could have been so used to breastfeeding that they experience some difficulty in learning to suckle from the bottle. In cases like these, you can probably introduce the bottle a few times in the first 4 weeks of their lives. That way, it won’t be such a biggest adjustment for them when the time calls for it.