reusing expressed breast milk?

[picklesrule]

I'm leaving DD for the day tmrw (eek) for the first time and have expressed a fair bit of milk.

I'm not sure how much she usually has during the day so have just filled a couple of bottles but she obviously won;t drink all at one sitting.
I know I can take it out of fridge, use, put back in and reuse over about 4-5 hrs but each time I do that can I also heat it slightly or should I leave it fridge temp? (usually pop btl in some hot water just to tak ethe chill off)
Any answers gratefully received!

Hi, I'm sure someone more expert will be along soon but these are my thoughts.

I always stored expressed bm in "feed size" portions (frozen) so about 3-4oz at a time (until ds was about 4mo when I started doing larger portions). That way each portion went in a freshly sterlised bottle and was warmed, anything that wasn't drunk in the feed (or within an hour afterwards) was chucked. My concern with what you suggest is that you would be reusing the bottles which from the sound of it have not been sterlised since you expressed the milk and then you will be taking in and out of fridge/reheating/giving to your dd over the course of a day? Tbh not something I would do.

If you don't have many bottles (I didn't either) then what I suggest for tomorrow is that you ask whoever is looking after your dd to pour 2/3/4oz into a freshly sterlised bottle at each feed which can then be heated. Then you are less likely to have any cross-contamination or worries about how long it can be reused for.

Just my thoughts

I'd transfer the milk (right quantity) into a fresh bottle for that feed so you can warm it up. As far as I'm aware you can not warm up expressed milk to put it back in fridge again.

thanks all! The kellymom sight had said that milk would be ok in and out of the fridge for 4-5 hrs but couldn't find any more info on whether to change bottle/heat it up or not. That sounds the most sensible thing so will just pop some smaller feeds in bottles..

So hard to know as I have no idea how much she takes, esp now we are weaning and i'm worried I might not have pumped enough so didn't want to waste any!