Why does Vicki Scott/Avent say EBM can only be stored for 24 hours in a fridge?

[chipmonkey]

When La Leche League and Kellymom say it's safe for 8 days! Even when ds3 was in SCBU and 8 weeks prem the milk could be used up to 48 hours after being expressed. 24 hours is very restrictive!

I was also wondering that, chipmonkey. I store Friday's expressed milk in the fridge for DD to have at nursery on Monday. I thought it was ok if you stored it at the back of the fridge.

where does she say that? what a pile of nonsense.

Because she's mistaken.

I always only stored mine in the fridge for 24 hours (used to throw it out if necessary - oh the pain) but then I always used Avent products......

She says it here on Mumsnet! And quotes Unicef.

I noticed this & emailed mumsnet to ask the source of the info & got this reply the other day:

"We asked Vicki Scott to clarify this piece of information for us, and this is what she has supplied us with, which is now being added to their microsite:

Unicef's Baby Friendly Initiative recommends that breast milk can be stored safely in fridge for 24 hours (2-4 degrees c), and kept in a freezer for 3 months, and for a week in the freezer compartment of the fridge. The BFI also recommends that unless you have a fridge thermometer, it is safest to freeze any milk you do not use within 24 hours. The Department Of Health also supports this advice."

Now need to find out why unicef, BFI & DOH think this when there is evidence out there to the contrary. Not knowing you can keep your milk for up to 8 days could kill some people's bfing relationships. I know when I had to express exclusively for DS when he was little being able to use old fridge stick was invluable for bad days when I couldn't express enough. Am moving house in 2 weeks time so haven't the energy to do a bog search/email everyone...shall do so in the new year unless someone else fancies looking into this issue?

you can only keep milk for 24 hours

bonkers - let's face it, even cows milk from the shop gets longer than that!

Ignore the last line of my previous post - hit post instead of preview

and really only 3 months in freezer?

(have loads in there!)

Yes only 3 months in freezer Tommy. The composition of your milk changes as your baby gets older, so it wouldn't be right for them after more than 3 months anyway.

Now, don't quote me on this, but I am sure that I read somewhere that freezing deteriorates the milk ever so slightly, and if you are going to be using it within 8 days then it's better to keep it refrigerated than to freeze it.

But I don't remember where I read that, so it could be complete rubbish.

From kellymom:
Breastmilk handling & storage: www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html
HUMAN MILK STORAGE -
Freshly expressed milk
Warm room 79°F / 25°C 4-6 hours
Room temperature 66-72°F / 19-22°C 10 hours
Insulated cooler / icepacks 60°F / 15°C 24 hours
Refrigerated Milk (Store at back, away from door)
Refrigerator (fresh milk) 32-39°F / 0-4°C 8 days
Refrigerator (thawed milk) 32-39°F / 0-4°C 24 hours
Frozen Milk (Do not refreeze! Store at back, away from door/sides)
Freezer compartment inside refrigerator (older-style) Varies 2 weeks
Self-contained freezer unit of a refrigerator/freezer Varies 3-6 months
Separate deep freeze 0°F / 19°C 6-12 months
These guidelines are for milk expressed for a full-term healthy baby. If baby is seriously ill and/or hospitalized, discuss storage guidelines with baby?s doctor.

Reusing expressed breastmilk: www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/reusing-expressedmilk.html

From LLLi:
LLLI guidelines for storing my pumped milk: www.llli.org/FAQ/milkstorage.html

• at room temperature (66-72°F, 19-22°C) for up to 10 hours
• in a refrigerator (32-39°F, 0-4°C) for up to 8 days
• in a freezer compartment inside a refrigerator (variable temperature due to the door opening frequently) for up to 2 weeks
• in a freezer compartment with a separate door (variable temperature due to the door opening frequently) for up to 3 to 4 months.
• in a separate deep freeze (0°F, -19°C) for up to 6 months or longer.

The sentences at the end of the kellymom information makes me wonder if the unicef & DOH guidelines are particularly strict because of this issue. DOH guidelines and recommendations sometimes seem to be overly cautious in order to cover those at more risk of something. Babies who are unwell may well be at more danger of getting infections etc & so the advise for sterilising of pumps etc is slightly more strict....the unicef guidelines presumably are more applicable to the hospital environment since that's what the baby-friendly initiative usually centres on.

mawbroon you are kind of right on the freezing issue, can't remember where I've read it, think there is a link on Kellymom...but some of the antibodies that bm contains are killed by freezing and different containers make different bits of the milk stick to them meaning they might not receive all the goodness bm has in it. So its best not to feed them totally on frozen milk (say if you were excl expressing). If your LO gets fresh or refrigerated milk as well as frozen milk then it really isn't that much of an issue.

CSWS, no, that's not right, I'm afraid!

I expressed bmilk for prem babies when DS2 was 6-9mo. Perfectly fine to do that - gave the milk bank 2 litres of breastmilk!

I stored bmilk in the fridge for a week too - fine. And left one lot out overnight after expressing, pouring it into the bag, then putting it on the desk before doing to bed.

Luckily it was winter! DS1 drank it

Really hunker? I'd wondered how milk banks dealt with the age thing .
But the composition does change doesn't it - please tell me I'm not wrong about that?!

Yes the composition does change to suit the baby, but it's still good for any baby. That's why the preference for milk goes:

1. Direct from baby's own mother
2. expressed milk from baby's own mother
3. donated milk
4. formula

CSWS - the composition of breastmilk changes all the time, hourly and daily and weekly; this is perfectly physiological and reflects the needs of the individual baby at that time. It never becomes so different that it 'wouldn't be right' for that baby at a later stage, or indeed someone else's baby

Over time - a long time, over a year - there is a study showing that the milk becomes slightly more calorie-dense than before.

But there is always a variation, in the same mother and in different mothers.

The EBM in fridge thing is a tricky one - some of the studies have been done on non-domestic fridges, for instance. The common sense thing to do with a healthy baby is to smell it, just as you would with anything else you're not sure about. If it smells ok, how bad can it be???

I only kept mine for 24 hours in the fridge

Well, ds3 was 8 weeks prem and the milk for him was deemed to be fine for up to 48 hours so I can't think why 24 hours should be the upper limit for a full-term healthy baby. 24 hours is very limiting and unfortunately I took Avent's advice when ds1 was little and dumped a lot of good milk.

Thanks for clarifying that ladies .