Urgent breastmilk storage question!! Please advise.

[ipanemagirl]

I"m going out tonight for the first time away from dd (4 months) and I managed to express one little bottle last night which I put into the fridge in the bottle I had expresssed into that attaches to the electric breastpump I used.

Can I now transfer that milk into those special sterilised milk bags? I have teats to go with those bags but no teats for the bottle the milk is in now.

Does that make sense? The instruction leaflet for the steribag things says NOT to be used in conjunction with an electric breast pump but doesn't say why.. I don't understand why not, unless you're not allowed to move breast milk from one container to another!

I only expressed once with a hand pump many years ago and have forgotten everything!

Does it mean they can't be connected to an electric pump? I transferred milk from my hand pump into bags for freezing all the time. Can't see what's so different about milk that's been expressed via an electric pump

I'd put the milk into the bags

I would assume that meant "don't attach to an electric pump" rather than "don't use with milk extracted using an electric pump". It's not as though your milk takes on a strange electric pumpiness quality.

Maybe it means that you can't use the bag with the pump to express directly into iykwim. I think you should be fine transferring it into a sterilised bag now or maybe even the sterilised bottle that you're planning to use tonight?

oops - x-post!

Thanks for advice, I'm just such a know nothing about it and feel really useless that I haven't mastered all this before! But have had that terrible cold etc and am all shot away!

Forgive stupid question but what's the most idiot proof way for dh to warm the milk up for dd? He's very nervous about being left in charge I can tell. Should I just get him to warm it up in a bowlful of hot water? Or should he do the pan on the hob thing. Again, I just can't remember any of this stuff. Thanks

Obviously this is the milk IN the bottle!
I feel such an idiot!

Bowl of hot water is what I used to do

Yeah - bowl of hot water is prob the best bet. We actually got a bottle warmer that you put water in and set the bottle into and it heats it to the right temp. We hardly used ours but it was convenient when we needed it - even tho MIL used the microwave once despite being shown how the bottle warmer worked!! Thankfully we got home before she had given it to DS.

Thanks! Does it still work ok when it's in a bag that's in a bottle! I know dh is going to make a hash of it and curse me to the skies! He was all 'why didn't you sort this out before!!' . He's also phobic about breastmilk!! I'm in such a panic about leaving her tonight, it's so pathetic of me.

I've never used a bag inside the bottle....I always emptied the milk from the storage bag into the bottle and heated it.