Storing breast milk

[Eilly]

Hi,

I've been exclusively breastfeeding my 9-week old son but have recently started pumping and have been trying to introduce the bottle over the last couple of days. He's not taking to it very well but I am determined to keep trying. My question is this: I've been heating up the bottles to room temperature by sitting them in hot water just before feeding him (I think this is the right thing to do?) but when he doesn't feed I wonder whether I can put the precious milk (takes me ages to pump) back in the fridge and use it again at the next attempt? Does it matter that the milk has been warmed up? I realize that breastmilk in the fridge can keep up to seven days but just wondered if the warming up would make a difference?

All advice welcome. Thanks.

[Rachels]

What I've learned is that there is no single formula for how long breastmilk stays fresh. It varies woman to woman. I know that my milk tends to go sour more quickly once it's been warmed, but it's not as though I have to dump it immediately. Usually it is fine for the rest of the day. Do a sniff test before you re-warm a bottle. You'll know in no uncertain terms if you need to toss it.

-Rachel
Mommy to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[KathyO]

I wouldn't try re-using the milk. If there's any organism in there that could be harmful, the warming and all the lovely nutrients, and not being consumed right away, are just what it needs to take off and reproduce like wildfire. (It isn't one germ that's dangerous - it's when they get a chance to become a million germs.)

To compound the problem, when you put the bottle back into the fridge, the outer layer of the milk might cool down fairly rapidly, but the inner core will remain warm for a surprising length of time, and the bacterial colonization can get a really good foothold before the cold gets in to slow it down. And if Junior gets a stomach upset from it, he is likely to get really entrenched in his refusal... kind of like the way you can't face a food after you got sick on it.

I feel your frustration, trust me. My daughter reacted to pumped milk as if it were arsenic! It took several months to get her to accept the bottle. The best solution I can suggest is to separate your newly pumped milk into small quantities, and only warm up a bit at a time, so that you only have to pitch out a bit if it gets refused.

Best of luck,

HTH,

KathyO

[Momof3Labs]

I agree with Kathy - store and warm only a small amount at a time so you won't waste a whole bottle on a refused feeding. Have you tried experimenting with different nipples and bottles? I also once heard the suggestion of warming only the nipple (eliminating the need for warming the milk). Also, let someone else give him the bottle - you may even need to leave the house when they try.

I've also heard that some babies will NOT take EBM out of a bottle, but they will accept formula out of a bottle. If it's important that your baby take a bottle, maybe that is worth a try (though I understand your desire to give your baby EBM).

Lori
mommy to Colin Daniel 9/28/02

[newbelly2002]

Stay with it. It (usually) does get better.

We ran into the same refusal. It's awful to hear the screams, isn't it? We introduced a bottle of EBM at 3 weeks because I had to have surgery. DS took it fine. Then we moved and lost a part of the pump, etc. The end result was that it was 6 weeks later before we RE-introduced the bottle. He refused. My husband tried having me in the house, out of the house, walking around, sitting, everything. We tried a different bottle (he had been using the Avent, and now won't) and that, combined with a whole lot of patience, seemed to work. It took about 10 days of trying once a day.

Suggestions: catch your baby in a good mood, hungry but not starving. Also, try at night when baby is tired. It seemed to help. One time we were able to get him to take it by having me BF him on one side and then handing him off to DH with the bottle. A friend said that her husband gave her daughter a pacifier, waited until the baby was tired and then replaced the pacifier with the bottle. DS has never accepted a pacifier so that didn't work for us.

Have patience, really. Now, DS drinks the bottle in under 5 minutes flat (it still takes 30-40 minutes for a "regular" feed.). As to storing, I would follow the recommendation to separate the EBM into small 1-2 oz feedings until baby is taking the bottle. It's downright painful to have toss any, but at least it's only a small amount rather than 4-6 ozs.

[nohomama]

My partner is a PhD in microbiology and would concur with what Kathy has said. Food borne illnesses are a nasty bunch and are something you really want to protect an infant from. EBM is precious, precious stuff...like gold you've mined from the earth with only your fingernails...and it really sucks when you have to dump it down the drain. So, dole it out an once at a time until your babe finds the bottle more to his liking.

Good luck!

[Rachels]

FWIW, I've been following the advice of the Sears book, which suggests that you can keep the milk for one more feeding once you've warmed it. But I agree with everybody, it's better to try smaller amounts.

Have you tried different nipples? What worked best for us, ultimately, was the nipple that most closely matched Abigail's pacifier shape.

-Rachel
Mommy to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[Eilly]

Thanks everyone for words of advice and encouragement. Will try storing milk in small amounts and keep trying.

[spu]

We use ebm for our twins as well. When introducing the bottle, I would first breastfeed for a minute to calm the baby and let them know it's meal time. Then I would do a quick switch of the bottle and that seemed to work, and I finished with the breast.

When Else would initially tried the bottle, she refused for a long time. I would have to hold her and coax her with a soft voice. Eventually she took the bottle and I would gently ease her into my husbands arms to finish the bottle feeding.

The interesting thing is each week, everything changes. One issue is resolved and another pops up. Good luck with the pumping. It definitely gets better. Plus, your supply will increase to meet the babies needs. I'm still waiting for the feeding sessions to decrease to the magical 10 minutes that I've heard about. We're running anywhere between 20-30 minutes per baby right now, (15 minutes for the first feeding of the day) but that beats the 1-2 hour marathon feedings we had in the beginning!

susan

twin girls 7.20.02
charlotte & else

[nola]

Regarding the storage issue, I read a suggestion somewhere of freezing the breastmilk in ice trays. After they are solid, transfer them to a freezer bag. The cubes then can be warmed up individually based on how much is required. They are also faster to melt in the smaller chunks.
As a disclaimer, I have not tried this myself yet. I was thinking of getting an ice tray of a different color. I amused myself by imagining what could result from the breastmilk cubes accidentally getting emptied into our ice cube bin. :)
Good luck with the bottle-training.
Nola