Expert: Sally Wendkos Olds - 6/24/2009

Question
Hello.  I will be traveling next week with my 8 week old (by plane- 2 hour
trip) and will be staying in a hotel where I will be working part time for a
week.  My mother in law will be minding the baby in the hotel for a few hours
each day and will be responsible for feeding him once or twice a day.  I have
been storing my breastmilk to build up a supply and plan to check the frozen
milk with frozen packs in a special breastmilk storage cooler  in my case. My
question is- how do I store this milk upon arrival?  Since I can't refreeze it (it
will likely thaw a bit during trip, even on ice)- how long will this milk last in
the fridge?  I was hoping to bring enough milk that it could be used each
day.  THank you so much.

Answer
Dear Michelle,

First, congratulations for giving your son the best start in life by breastfeeding him!

Your plans sound good, and your mother-in-law sounds like a gem. My only concern is that from the information that I have seen, if you are planning to feed expressed breast milk to your baby within eight days, you are better off refrigerating it for the week instead of freezing it and letting it thaw in the refrigerator. According to my research, freezing destroys some anti-infective properties of milk, and it is generally recommended that frozen milk that has then thawed in the refrigerator should be fed to a baby within 24 hours.

I'll look into this further, and if I find a knowledgeable resource that has changed these recommendations, I'll get back to you. Meanwhile, I am attaching an excerpt from my book (see below) about storage times for collected milk.

Good luck!

Sally
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Sally Wendkos Olds
Author, THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BREASTFEEDING: Eiger & Olds, 3rd edition 1999, published by Workman Publishing & Bantam Books, and available in most public libraries, bookstores & La Leche League chapters. Now in revision for a fourth edition, with pediatrician Laura M. Marks, M.D.
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Storage Times for Collected Milk
Basically, your collected breast milk will keep for several hours at room temperature if it’s covered; it will keep in the refrigerator for three days; and if you want to keep it longer than that, freeze it.
The longer you store milk, the less nutrition it will give your baby, so it’s best to use your milk as soon as possible. It’s also better to feed your baby refrigerated milk than frozen milk, since freezing may destroy some of breast milk’s anti-infective properties. If you’re expressing and storing milk for a preterm infant or a hospitalized baby, follow the recommendations of the institution where your baby is being cared for or has recently been discharged from.

Storing Freshly Expressed or Pumped Breast Milk
• To be given to baby within 4 hours: Ideally, cool or refrigerate as soon as possible after expressing, but if necessary it can be kept at room temperature, even in a warm room (66° to 79°F or 19° to 26°C).
• To be given to baby within 4 to 10 hours: Pour into a clean container; cap tightly. If convenient, refrigerate the milk or put it in a cooler with frozen ice packs. This is the safest course, even though human milk kept in a capped clean container does not grow bacteria at normal room temperature (66° to 72°F or 19° to 22°C) because of its bioactivity, its ability to slow the growth of bacteria. If the room temperature is higher than 72°  (22°C), refrigerate it.
* To be given to baby within 24 hours: Immediately put milk in a clean container and cap tightly, and as soon as possible put it in a cooler with frozen ice packs; refrigerate when you arrive home.
• To be given to baby within 1 week: Pour into a clean container; cap tightly. Refrigerate at 40°F (4°C) or below. Although it should keep well for a week, ideally if you want to keep it longer than three days, it’s best to freeze it.
• To be given to baby within 3 months: Pour into a clean container; cap tightly. Quick-cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then freeze in refrigerator-freezer unit.
• To be given to baby within 6 months: Pour into a sterile container; cap tightly. Quick-cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then freeze at 0°F (-18°C) or below in the freezer of a two-door refrigerator or a deep freeze that is not opened often. Not all freezers stay cold enough for long-term storage. Check the temperature with a freezer thermometer at different places in the unit. The freezer should maintain a constant temperature of 0°F. If it keeps ice cream very solid, it’s probably cold enough.
  If your freezer does not get this cold but does keep other frozen foods hard, keep the milk in the center of the freezer and use within three to four months. Frost-free refrigerators, which have a warming element, generally do not maintain 0°F (-18°C) – see “igloo” suggestion on page tk.
  To find out whether your milk thaws and then refreezes in your freezer, check by keeping an ice cube in a little jar; if you check it a day later and find that it no longer has the shape of the cube but that it has melted and refrozen, you’ll know that this has probably happened to your milk, too. Smell the milk to see if it’s still good. If you’re in doubt, discard it.
  Use milk as soon as possible after collecting it. Ideally, you won’t keep it longer than three months. For one thing, milk collected when your baby is two months old won’t meet her needs as effectively when she’s six months old – although it’s still better than formula!
• Keeping breast milk longer than 6 months: This is not a good idea. While instructions are sometimes given for keeping frozen milk up to two years, long-term freezing alters the chemical composition of the milk. (Some of the fats break down, and the milk loses some of its ability to fight harmful organisms.) Furthermore, you run the risk of contamination if you lose electrical power during that time and the milk thaws and refreezes.
• Do not refreeze milk that has defrosted: If frozen milk has started to thaw, refrigerate it immediately and use it within 12 hours.

Storing Milk That Has Been Frozen and Thawed in Refrigerator
•   Do not refreeze, do not thaw at room temperature, and do not store in cooler.
•   To be given to baby within one hour: Keep in container in refrigerator, or cooler, or at room temperature.
•   To be given to baby within 24 hours: Keep in container in refrigerator.  

Storing Milk That Has Been Thawed and Warmed
•   Do not refreeze and do not store in cooler.
•   To be given to baby right away: feed baby.

Milk That Has Been Warmed and Left in Bottle after Feeding
•   Do not store. Throw away any milk left in a bottle because organisms from the baby’s mouth can contaminate the rest of the milk. This is why it’s best to store expressed milk in small quantities.