Using frozen expressed milk

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Sorry if this is a stupid question but I can't seem to find an answer anywhere...

I have been BFing for 2 weeks and have needed to express some milk to ease swollen boobs, so have been freezing it ready for DH to give DD a night feed in a few weeks when she's used to latching on.

I know you aren't supposed to defrost it in the microwave but does it need to be heated in some way before giving it to her or do we just defrost it to room temperature?? Or would we just move it from freezer to fridge for a few hours and then use it? I am so tired that the logistics of this are baffling me!!

You've got three different options:

1. Defrost it in the fridge overnight and then heat it up when you want to use it, ideally in bottle warmer or surrounded by a cup of warm water. Not a good idea to leave it for hours and hours on the kitchen worktop because it's not pasteurised and bugs might possibly thrive in it.
2. Cut out the overnight defrost and just defrost it in a bottle warmer or cup of warm water when you want to use it (that's what we do).
3. It is possible to cheat and heat it in microwave, but the reason you're not advised to do that is because it's easy to overdo it, and/or end up with scalding hot spots that develop after you take it out of the microwave. However a good shake and testing it very carefully and thoroughly in a paranoid fashion with a clean finger will help you avoid that.

Suggest bottle warmer as your safest, easiest bet for now. Also suggest having one sole carton of long life ready made formula stashed away as psychological backup (because it's like taking an umbrella out when it's sunny ... you know it won't rain then!)

Just to let you know as well that if your fridge is 4 degrees or lower you can keep it in the body of the fridge for 8 days before using it so if you know that you'll use it you can save freezing it.

Can I hijak a bit and ask my question which is similar - if frozen how long will it last in a fridge?

and if chilled in a fridge how long will it last at room temp?

and if chilled, then taken out for the day, can it be put in a fridge again?

Hopefully the answers to these questions will be useful to the OP too so not a complete hijak!!

Just noticed your name boolean - any link to maths??

Ha! Ninja, my husband did a maths degree and thought it was a hilarious nickname for me based on my surname...

Thanks for the advice. I haven't got a bottle warmer yet - was hoping not to have to shell out on one as we have been using bags for freezing the milk (got some Lansinoh ones from Mothercare) and was just going to decant it into a sterilised bottle after it was defrosted. Is a bottle warmer going to be a necessity at some point anyway? If it is then I will get one sooner rather than later.

My DS has expressed milk straight out of the fridge, cold, or warm straight out of my boobs.
So try it cold before you get a bottle warmer!

no need to warm just defrost and serve at room temperature !!
this is what i was advised in scubu!
it's apparantly better for reflux aswell!

Sorry for another hijak

ninja you said the milk will only last 8 hours in the fridge i thought it was 24 hours or so?

Also how long can milk straight from the breast be left out before putting it in the fridge? and can i keep adding to it before i put it in the fridge?

It's 8 days in the fridge and 24 hours out of the fruidge - I'll try and find a link

Thank godness for that , i thought i was giving my ds gone off milk for a min

Sorry - maybe not 24 hours, Storm's link says 6 hours this one says 10 hours. Anyway quite a long time!

and it's a fridge not a fruidge!

doh i read it wrong tired brain

here they have ideal and acceptable guidelines for storage.

The above also answers some of my earlier questions and mentions about heating.

Note you don't have to sterilize containers - they need to be 'containers which have been washed in hot, soapy, water, rinsed well, and allowed to air-dry before use'