EBM hygiene question - can anyone help overnight?

[LadyWidmerpool]

Quick background. Feeling rotten with a fever tonight. Has gone down now.

I have work tomorrow and hopefully feeling ok to go in. I'm expressing in the day for my 6.5 mo DD. I'm not getting much so prizing every drop. I haven't been able to freeze a stash for boring reasons so am living hand to mouth.

When I was poorly earlier (around 11) my husband helpfully put today's lot in a bottle and offered it to her. She is a confirmed refuser and didn't take any. She had the bottle in her mouth though.

I've read that you can reuse a BM bottle at the next feed however ideally she wouldn't be drinking this (in a cup or mixed with porridge) until midday ish. Can we keep the bottle in the fridge until then or do we need to dump it or use it within 3-5 hours of 11pm?

I would like to go to work if I feel ok because it's my first day back from mat leave! Aargh!! Is this stupid in itself? I feel so much better and no other symptoms but I may not be thinking clearly. I've had an unexplained fever before which went away in a couple of hours and the doctor reckoned I was fighting something off.

I'm starting to convince myself I need to stay at home. That'll be a fun phone call!

Any thoughts very gratefully received. Thanks a lot.

I would have used it. Definitely for ds3 and ds4 as I had found MN by then. With ds1 and ds2 I applied the same rules to breastmilk as you did to formula but the wise ladies here told me that you don't have to. It's so hard going back, isn't it!

Thanks! I'm feeling even more fed up because her ladyship settled herself (she never does this) and I couldn't believe it and had to check on her, and she woke up. Joy!

I'd use it, as long as it's been in the fridge.

Don't go in if you are poorly though! Can't be helped. I have had to take the first day of a new job off sick. I felt like an eejit but I couldn't do anything about it.

My BF support woman told me 5 hours at room temperature and 4 days in the fridge (at the back, not the door).

As she's had a mouth of it I'd not keep it for that long but would probably stick it back in the fridge and use it within the next 8 hours or so.

Unlike formula and previously frozen breastmilk, fresh breastmilk has its own antiseptic properties. Tons of those germ fighting cells. It's magic I tells you.

Celtic, that makes sense and fits with my resolution not to let work straw me out any more now I have baby to stress about! I'll see how the night goes.

Stress not straw. Straw is not something I worry about. Yet.

Thanks all for your help.