Reheating breast milk

For some mothers who need to return to work after giving birth, storing breast milk and heating it up for their children when they need feeding is a relatively important feeding method. Although this is not a recommended method, it is indeed the most suitable method for working mothers. Of course, it should be noted that when reheating breast milk, it needs to be heated in the correct way!

1. Can breast milk be reheated?

Breast milk is warm when it is expressed, and the temperature is just right for the baby. It is best not to reheat it before feeding it to the baby. Instead, you can squeeze out the breast milk and put it in the refrigerator, and then heat it up when the baby drinks it, and it will be the same as freshly squeezed milk. It is best not to heat leftover milk, as it is not clean and has no nutritional value.

2. How to store breast milk

Prepare a breast pump and milk storage utensils. It is best to use plastic products that are suitable for freezing and have good sealing, such as breast milk storage bags. Glass products are the second best choice. It is best not to use metal products, as the active factors in breast milk will adhere to glass or metal and reduce the nutrients in the breast milk.

Mothers can express and store breast milk before going to work, and label the date and time of expression to avoid digestive tract diseases caused by expiration. No matter how busy a mother is, she must ensure that she expresses milk every 3 hours. This can effectively prevent breast engorgement and a decrease in milk secretion, allowing breastfeeding to continue better.

If the workplace does not have refrigeration equipment, the mother can prepare a mini refrigerator to store the food temporarily. When returning home, the baby should eat the food as soon as possible or put it in the refrigerator for refrigeration. Leave some space in the container containing breast milk. Do not fill it too full or close the lid too tightly to prevent the container from freezing and bursting. It is best to divide breast milk into small portions of 60-120ml and freeze or refrigerate them to make it easier for family members or nannies to feed the baby according to the baby's appetite and avoid waste. Label them and record the date.

How long can breast milk be stored?

1. Testing of breast milk found that when the temperature of breast milk was between 19 and 26 degrees, the bacteria did not grow for 2 to 4 hours, but after 6 hours, the bacterial growth rate accelerated.

2. Lysozyme in breast milk can destroy the bacterial mucopolysaccharide complex. Secretory immunoglobulin A in breast milk can agglutinate microorganisms. However, under room temperature conditions, these lysozymes and immunoglobulins will undergo changes in their molecular structure over time and gradually lose their function of inhibiting bacterial growth. Therefore, after breast milk is expressed, it should not be stored naturally at room temperature for more than 6 hours.

3. The expressed breast milk should be stored in a sterilizer, cooled with cold water, and finally refrigerated in the refrigerator. It can be refrigerated for 3 days. Each time the milk is expressed, it should be bottled separately and not mixed. If there are many bottles, the date of milking should be marked.