Didn’t know about the two hour rule

[KatieJ345]

My son is 4.5 months old and I have been giving him expressed breast milk every day. The NHS says it is fine out to be at room temp for 6 hours but I didn’t know that once the baby has drunk from it, it should be discarded after 2 hours. Sometimes he hasn’t always finished the milk within this time and I have let him drink from the bottle for 4 hours.

Will my baby suffer long term effects from this?

No he's fine. The reason for that 'rule' I think is that saliva etc could get in to the remaining milk and that might contain grime etc he's just picked up. Milk is really good at growing bacteria but I think it's been found this doesn't happen within 2 hours. So the rule is to reduce the risk of a tummy bug. Any effects of which would be short term and explosive 😁
I would try putting less in the bottle so you can minimise waste. I know it's hard to judge. But nothing to worry about.

I’m not great at following that rule and instead of wasting, I’ll put the bottle in the fridge to prevent bacteria growth.

He will be absolutely fine 🙂

Thanks everyone, I will start putting smaller amounts in the bottle from now on!