Re-using already heated breast milk.

[NoTeaForMe]

So my baby is finally taking a bottle, she is having expressed breastmilk. I'm trying to work out how much she takes per feed at the moment. Therefore some milk is being wasted, if I put milk in a bottle, heat it and give it to her how long will the milk she didn't drink last. Can I put it in the fridge and use again for her next feed? Can I leave it on the side or should it just be binned?

I know people are going to say I should put in less than she needs and add more if she wants it but halfway through a feed she doesn't like waiting for the next bit!

I don't think you can heat it again if it's already been heated once and I probably wouldn't want to use it if it'd been sat on the side very long, for one thing it'd probably separate but
I'm not a bfc or have any training. Hopefully someone who knows properly will come along to advise you. Or check kellymom

Now that she's taking a bottle, how about gradually cutting out the heating up?

We started warming the expressed milk for ds, then discovered he was ok with it at room temp (rather than lukewarm). After a week or so, he was happy with it straight from the fridge. It's safer to pop unused milk back in fridge for next feed if it's at room temp or below.

There is a discussion of reusing EBM on Kellymom. It doesn't reach any definite conclusions, but might help you decide.

Thanks, that's really helpful, especially the information on kellymom, thanks for that RedKite

i used ice cube bags and filled them up with expressed milk before feedings, that way you can use less and if baby is still hungry just defrost a few more milk cubes without wasting another whole batch.

Once the milk bottle has been in the baby's mouth, surely bacteria have been introduced into the milk from her mouth? Warm milk is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. I would personally throw out leftover milk after an hour or so.

Expressing is such hard work so I am not willing to waste a single drop! Any unused milk goes back into the fridge and goes towards the next expressed bottle which is usually less than a day later. I read the Kellmom info and decided to give it a go. DD is 19 weeks with no adverse effects so far. We do the sniff test like with any milk to see if it's off.

I believe the antimicrobial properties of breast milk inhibit bacterial growth even when some has already been in contact with baby's mouth.