Advice for DH re: alone for first time with DD

[lampes]

I have to go on an overnight trip for the first time. I nurse DD to sleep every night and she wakes often to feed during the night (probably 3-4x between 8:00 and 8:00). Any tips or tricks for DH? DD is 7 months old and is eating bananas and a little rice cereal (tried avocado today but she didn't seem very interested in it). How long after the bottle is heated can DH give it to the baby? He would like to prepare a bottle to have ready when she wakes up in the night. I thought, at best, 2 hours but that even seems a long time to me.

[audys]

Hi, my understanding is that the bottle should be used within 4 hours for expressed breast milk from my LC. Formula is much shorter (like an hour).

Audrey, mother to Graham

http://lilypie.com/baby1/050210/3/15/1/+10/.png (http://lilypie.com)

[lampes]

I should clarify that he is thawing frozen EBM.

[gcampbell72]

My lactation consultant told me that a bottle of expressed breastmilk had to be used within 1 hour of heating.

One thing he could do would be to put some frozen EBM in the refrigerator to thaw; that way, when he went to use it he would only only need to heat from refrig temperature rather than frozen. Once you move frozen EBM to the refrigerator, I was told you need to use within 24 hours.

Hope that helps.

Cathy
mom to Owen, 10/16/03

[netne]

It's really safest to heat the milk just prior to feeding. When I had to work overnight, DH would have a bottle of EBM ready in the fridge (or have a bag thawing that he could put into a bottle). Then it would just take a couple minutes to heat it before feeding.

Good luck to DH! Those were rough nights for my DH to be left alone with DS who was used to nursing. I got alot of 2am pages from desperate DH with crying baby in the background. But I think it made for good daddy-son bonding time (and helped DH appreciate mommy's work). :-)