Feeding with ebm whilst out and about

[ThirtyLove]

I'm currently feeding my 2mo with mainly ebm that I'm defrosting in a fridge (She is feeding a little from the breast but I don't have a good enough supply yet to be doing this exclusively). Tomorrow we have to go out for the day so I was going to take thawed ebm but I don't know if this is ok or not.

I've read both the nhs start4life booklets for breast and bottle feeding and they don't tell me how to deal with this situation, as far as I can see. Can anyone help?

Or will I need to feed her formula tomorrow just to be sure?

Many thanks in advance.

Well the best way to increase your supply is to breast feed more!

Other than that, its ok to take out thawed breastmilk as long as its kept chilled, then warmed up when your baby is ready for it.

If you want to increase your supply I suggest keeping away from formula while you don't need it.

I'm not an expert but I've done this with mine - was exclusively expressing for the first 5 weeks so had no choice! I think it's ok out of the fridge for a few hours, on really hot days I've been dropping a still frozen ebm ice cube in the bottle as well to keep it cool for longer.

Oh and personally I wouldn't worry about warming it up, mine will happily drink it straight from the fridge.

Kellymom advice is:

• Freshly expressed milk can be stored at room temperature for 4-8 hours (ideally no more than 3 or 4)
• Thawed milk can be kept in the fridge for 24 hours.

I tend to treat thawed milk like freshly expressed milk once it's out of the fridge, so try to use it within 3-4 hours at room temperature.

Thank you this is great advice!

I exclusively expressed for 10 weeks (it took a long time for DS to learn to feed from me!!) and I also treated thawed milk like freshly expressed milk.

When I went out for the day I just took a couple of bottles of thawed EBM, which as the Kellymom advice says is fine out of the fridge for three or four hours.

DS also wasn't fussy and would happily take it at room temp, so there was no faffing with heating it up or anything.