Storing expressed breast milk

[emza78]

Hi,

My little one's not taken to breast feeding but I'm managing to express about 150mls a pop at the moment (is this excessive or normal?? it seems a lot!) Just wondering how to store breast milk though, is it similar to formula? At the moment I'm putting the whole 150ml straight into the fridge until the next feed, then heating it all up in tub of boiled water, then putting the left over back in the fridge and reheating - is this ok?

Also, we have a Milton cold water steriliser, does anyone rinse off the bottles and teats after it comes out of this or just shake off and use?

Thanks in advance!

Emma

Here is the BfN leaflet on expressing and storing milk.

National Breastfeeding Helpline: 0300 100 0210

There will be info in your birth to five book on expressing and storing.

Have you thought about seeing your health visitor or going along to a support group to get some help with getting baby onto the breast rather than bother with expressing? Might be very helpful to you.

Hi Emza and congratulations on your LO

Not sure how old your LO is so don't know about quantities but please take a look at Kellymom about how to store your milk and NCT. Plus you might find this website useful.

Is there any help we can give you about the feeding too?

I use cold water steriliser with Milton, no need to rinse off.

HTH

Emza78 - well done on getting 150mls a session, that's really good. I also express a lot (have posted on many threads on the subject) and that's about what I get per session. It seems we're very much in the minority for being able to express that much! If I do a night time express session between 1.30 and 5.30am I am often able to get to 200ml (if it's been four hours since my last session on the pump).

I do the same as you - express my 150ml ish then immediately put it in the fridge at 4 degrees c unless the baby happens to be ready for some milk then he gets it straight away. If it goes in the fridge, when required later on I heat it up for 3-4mins in the bottle warmer. DS normally drinks it all. If there's less than 20ml left I chuck the rest, otherwise will reheat the remainder one more time only. Don't know if this is strictly proper, but there's nothing wrong with DS and he hasn't been ill from me doing this yet!

You can also freeze it

Great, thanks for your help guys. LO is only 8 days old, i think she'd take non stop milk if she could but i'm trying to give her 90mls a feed, 6 feeds a day - does that sound about right?

Good to hear you do the same aubornlizzy78 - I thought I might start decanting from fridge to another bottle - 90mls a time so i;m hopefully not reheating twice too much.

I'm seeing a breast feeding specialist next week but to be honest I'm quite happy with the expressing at the moment - it means other half can feed at night and it's really not too much hassle, 20 mins expressing and 20 mins feeding to LO compared to what I've heard can be hours of pure breastfeeding if done the conventional way.

Emza, glad it is working for you but not all bf babies feed for hours. My DD was 10 minutes every 3 hours. I realise that's not the case for all babies though as my DS was the complete opposite.

Have you thought of continuing with the expressing if sharing the bottles is working, but getting her on the breast as well? Its just that if you are out or get stuck anywhere lifting up your top is just so convenient that it might be worth your while.

Though really if something is working for you, thats great, its just that at 8 days your Lo is so young and bfing can be quite time consuming at that age but in the long run its so much less hassle.

Is your Bfing Specialist a bfing counsellor with one of the main charities, if so, could they come around sooner?