Can I Reuse Pumped, Fresh Breastmilk?

the rule we followed was to make sure you change the nipple, something w/bacteria in there if you've used it before.
we would only heat milk once.
if you've never heat it before we'd use it up to the next day.

You can use it for the very next feeding. If he doesn't drink it all after the second try, you should discard it.

Personally, I never reused previously warmed milk. Once it was warmed, I had to discard it. Better safe than sorry. If I questioned whether my child would finish a serving... because some meal times were smaller, I divided the contents, in half. True, it temporarily creates more bottles but the milk is not wasted.

Good luck.

Hi S.,

I pumped for ten months, and I would always let my daughter finish up a refrigerated bottle later on in the day. She never had a problem. We also warmed the milk in warm tap water. Fresh (never-been-frozen) milk is a live substance filled with antibodies. There should not be any bacterial issue from rewarming.

One thing I did was to store the milk in a separate bottle and have the babysitter pour only an ounce or two at a time into her bottle. She would then pour in another ounce if the baby wanted more. If it's too easy for the baby to get a lot of milk out of the bottle at once, he might begin to prefer it to the breast. You want him to have to work at the bottle, because he has to work to get the milk out of the breast.

I hope this helps!

La Leche League is the final authority on these matters and according to their book, 'The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding' this is not actually known. It says that recent studies have shown that human milk actually retards the growth of bacteria so it may be safe to refrigerate unused milk for later use. Personally, when my baby was little we used to go by the rule that says human milk can safely be kept at room temperature (66-72degrees F)for up to 10 hours (also a LLL standard). So we would take out the milk and if she didn't drink it w/in 10 hours we dumped it. That way it can be left on the counter until he's hungry again--just make a note of what time you took it out of the fridge.
I would think it would be ok to give it to him if you only re-refrigerated it once. I never sterilized my daughter's nipples after the initial cleaning like most people do nowadays and she was just fine!
If you're still concerned, I would just store the milk in smaller amounts.

Hi S.,
Yes you can do that. I always trusted my baby to let me know if the milk was off (they won't drink it if it is). In general, breastmilk is pretty durable, and as long as it hasn't been sitting way too long you can throw it back in the fridge and warm it up later. Most daycares will take an ultra-conservative approach to dealing with breastmilk, and will not do this for you. (really, it's probably best they do!) If the bottles aren't getting finished at daycare I suggest putting milk into smaller bottles - maybe just 2 oz or so - so that it doesn't get wasted.

No. Once the baby starts using the bottle, it has to be used up withing the hour. I pumped exclusivly for 14 mo with both my children. I only put the amount of milk I know they would take then I could always add more if they seemed like they were still hungry. I stored my milk in the storage bottles or in the bags. You could just put the amt you know he will take in the bottle and have an extra storage bottle or bag for excess. Then you wont waste milk. And if you start not warming your milk up as much, your son will start taking it right out the fridge. It's nice and easy then.

Hi S., I breat fed my kids also. Unfortunately you cant do that. The breast milk is good up to 4 hours after you warm it but it has to be at room temp. You cant put it back in the fridge. Check and ask you doc how meny hours in case Im wrong but I believe its 4.

S.:

yes you can re use the milk.... there has only been one study and it only looked 48 hours out BUT .. the antibodies and immunological properties in milk are known to destroy bacteria that would enter the milk from your baby.

P., RLC, IBCLC
Breastfeeding and Parenting Solutions

Hi S. ask your son peditrican and see what he/she saids about the re-use of breast milk.

Use your own best judgement on this issue...it sounds like you need to work up to getting a good supply of frozen milk so you have enough and don't need to worry about every drop...you may want to throw in an extra pumping or two as your baby starts to move his feedings out further (I would nurse baby at night, pump a couple hours later when I went to bed, and he's wake a couple hours later for his feeding, etc).