How long can breast milk be kept frozen and still be ok?

[HIU8]

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but, I read somewhere that even if you freeze breast milk after pumping it needs to be used within 48 hours or it loses the nutrients. Is this correct? If so, how do I handle pumping and feeding when I go back to work and we leave the baby in child care? I would like to breast feed as long as possible.

Thank you,

Heather

[hez]

Oh, goodness. You can store it much longer than that (link to a guide below):

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bf-links-milkstorage.html

I just took out 6 month-old EBM from the freezer (we have a separate deep freeze in the basement) this morning to make cereal for DS. No problems!

[stillplayswithbarbies]

Yes, it does begin to lose nutrients, but it doesn't go bad for a long time, depending on what type of freezer you have.

The best thing of course is breastmilk fresh from the breast, but even expressed breastmilk that has been refrigerated or frozen is still better than formula for the nutritional and other value.

Here is what I did. I started pumping way before I went back to work so I would have a freezer stash and not have to worry about pumping one day at a time for the next day. That relieves a lot of stress once you are back to work.

Every day, I would bring home what I pumped and put one bottle in the freezer and take out the oldest bottle from the freezer. That way I rotated my freezer stash. The rest of the fresh milk would then be sent to daycare along with the frozen milk.

I used a different color bottle for the frozen milk so daycare would know to feed that bottle first. (once thawed, it has to be used in 24 hours or it goes bad). They would then feed the fresh milk, keeping any untouched bottles for the next day.

If I pumped more than she needed, the extra would go in the freezer. On Friday, I would take stock of what was left of the fresh milk for the week and sometimes put the entire Friday pumping output in the freezer.

It's not hard once you get into a rhythm of it. I wanted to be sure that she was getting mostly fresh milk because the milk changes to meet her current needs, but I also wanted to be sure and have a freezer stash for emergencies. I was able to go away on business trips for several days and have enough in the freezer to get through it. (I pumped while away and brought back all the milk in a cooler)

So, the short answer to your question is that breastmilk can be frozen for up to 6 months in a chest freezer, 3 months in a regular freezer. It won't be exactly the same as milk fresh from the breast, but it is still good for the baby and is the best way to feed a baby while you are at work.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
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