How many times can I heat EBM?

[dan39]

I understand that ebm can be offered twice from a bottle - as in you don't have to throw out any (of the precious stuff!) if it's refused at first feed. I am assuming this means its okay for 3 hours maximum. Can it be reheated though? And I guess it needs to be refrigerated in between?

Only once as far as I'm aware.

You can only reheat it once but it can be used twice if your baby will take it at room temp. It is fine at room temp for up to 10 hours. You will know if it's gone off by the smell and your baby won't drink it!

Reheat by standing in warm water - don't microwave.

I used to jsut leave it at room temperature after expressing it and I found it would be fine for about 6-8 hours. If you keep a bottle full at room temp then take small amounts out to feed with you don't have to worry about it having been used to feed with. Ideally it is best not to reheat if you can get away with it.

I agree you can tell it has gone off by smelling it, and mine would refuse to drink it.

hi dan

There is some useful info on kellymom (add that site to your favourites by the way ).

the consensus seems to be you can reheat it more than once and then reuse and it can sit around out of the fridge for a lot longer than formula milk; this is due to the natural antibacterial properties.

It's fairly obvious if it is off though (I tasted some that was off; it was completely rank!) and your DD will let you know if it isn't to her liking!

How are things going now?

meant to add that repeated heating destroys some of it's natural properties. Also avoid heating in the microwave as this destroys the immunological benefits as well.

Hi daisy ta for that - my sis is having her tomoro and I will give her lots of milk and am just trying to avoid lots of it getting chucked! Have bagged in 1oz amounts so am sure it won't be a problem, but sis is used to formula (and likes RULES) and seems to think if dd doesn't take it in seconds (okay she said an hour) then it needs to be chucked. I checked Kellymom and they said keep til next feed. DD already used to it slightly warmed - more room temp, with chill from fridge taken off - so we can't really reverse that.

Her brief 3 day strike re bottles is over since we changed to a faster flow teat - result! I hadn't even known there were different ones...every day a school day hey.