Here’s how to store your breast milk!

• Storing breast milk
• Breast milk in the fridge
• Long-term storage: Freezing breast milk
• Defrosting breast milk
• How can you tell if breast milk is still OK?
• This might also interest you

Breast milk is easy to digest, contains all the important nutrients and protects your baby against diseases. This is why many women breastfeed their children; in fact, the breastfeeding rate in Germany is 82 percent. Most of these health benefits are retained even with pumped milk. This also makes it more suitable than other infant foods. To ensure that everything is ready and prepared to feed your child after pumping, some hygiene aspects must be observed. Here is the best way to store breast milk.

Freshly expressed breast milk is better than breast milk that has already been stored in the fridge. However, the latter is more suitable than previously frozen breast milk. This is because when breast milk is kept refrigerated or frozen, some antibacterial properties and nutrients are lost. So you should always consider when you will need the next portion of milk and what type of storage is best to store the breast milk. In any case, you should always write the pumping date and the amount of milk on the bags to make sure that you can keep track of what you’ve got.

It is up to you whether you use breast milk bottles or bags to store breast milk. The advantage of breast milk bottles is that they can be reused several times and can also be connected directly to the breast pump.

The advantage of bags, on the other hand, is that you can store them in a space-saving way. Bags also allow you to better portion the milk when storing it. However, these are not reusable and therefore produce a lot of waste. But as always: try it out for yourself and find the solution that suits you best.

Breast milk should be cooled as soon as possible after pumping. Clean BPA-free breast milk bottles or breast milk bags are suitable for storing breast milk in the fridge. BPA (bisphenol A) was used in plastic containers before many companies phased out the chemical due to the unknown long-term effects on humans.

It is best to store the bottles or bags in the coldest part of the fridge. Under no circumstances should it ever be stored in the fridge door. There, opening and closing the fridge causes temperature fluctuations that are not desirable with regard to breast milk.

If you want to store breast milk for longer than 5 days, you should freeze it. Small portions of about 60 ml best suited for this. The same applies to the chest freezer as to the fridge: store the breast milk where the temperature fluctuations and also the temperature itself are as low as possible.

Previously frozen milk should be left open at room temperature for a maximum of two hours or in the fridge for one day. Breast milk that has already been thawed should not be frozen again.

A bottle warmer can be used to reheat the breast milk. Those who want to avoid this purchase have a few more options: On the one hand, it is possible to let the milk thaw in the fridge for around twelve hours, for example overnight. Warming up at room temperature should be avoided due to germ formation.

On the other hand, the milk can be warmed up in a bowl of lukewarm water until it reaches body temperature at 37 degrees.

Gentle reheating in the microwave is also unproblematic. However, the emergence of so-called "hot spots" should be avoided. The milk often heats up unevenly in the microwave, so some areas can get too hot and the baby can get burnt. So be sure to carefully distribute the heat by gently stirring and checking the outside of the bottle with your hand.

How can you tell if breast milk is still fresh after being stored for a long time? Milk that has been stored in the fridge or frozen often smells slightly different.

This is because the enzyme lipase breaks down fats and releases fatty acids to prevent bacteria from multiplying. This changes the composition of the milk somewhat. In this case, the smell you might notice from the stored breast milk is not a sign of spoilage but of a natural biochemical process.

If all the hygiene instructions for storing breast milk have been observed, this milk can be fed without hesitation despite the changed odour. However, some babies don't like the taste of thawed milk; just try out your child's individual preferences when storing breast milk.

^{*All specifications given are to be considered as guideline values, and depend in each case on proper storage, without interruption of the cold chain, all the way from pumping the milk through to the Liebherr appliance.}