How long can you leave expressed breast milk out for please?

[sweetypie878]

Hi everyone just given birth want but finding heard to breast feed all the time so want to start pumping DS is sleeping and soon he will wake up For a feed

How long can I leave expressed breast pump out for please in room temp

I exclusively expressed for a year and don’t remember leaving it out for more than an hour or 2 (if DD hadn’t finished it). Not sure why you wouldn’t put it in the fridge?

Safe storage guidelines:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/breastfeeding/expressing-breast-milk/

By the way, if your baby is only a few days old (as per your other posts) and you intend to breastfeed, leave the pump alone. It’s less efficient than baby in stimulating milk flow and you lose the hormone feedback via baby’s saliva that changes the formulation of the milk.

Don't leave it on the side, treat it as cows milk. It'll keep in the fridge for up to 7 days.

Don't pump so early on if you want to EBF. Plenty of feeding will increase your supply.

I remember reading 6-6-6 for breast milk somewhere - could have been an antenatal class. 6hrs at room temp, 6 days in fridge and 6 months in freezer. But everything you Google is slightly different. (First result that comes up on Google is 4 hours). And up to 1 hour from a bottle being started to being discarded.

I've never kept it out more than an hour though after pumping- especially because my room temperature is often quite warm! I have also used cool bags with ice packs if expressing over night and can't be bothered to go downstairs to the fridge.

I've already pumped so I don't want it to go to waste now

I was told by my midwife it could stay out of the fridge for 6 hours.

I really wouldn’t recommend pumping again if you’re wanting to breastfeed.

Have a read of the Kellymom site to understand how breastfeeding works and you’ll be able to make the right choices for you both.

Thanks for the information I will read up about it more

And the milk hasn't been in the fridge freshly pumped just asking how long can it be left out for x

Special care baby unit will leave it out for up to 4 hours (that’s what they told me). I assume they are on the cautious side as they are fragile babies, so 4-6 hours?