mixing refrigerated breast milk

[newmominct]

I recently went back to work...
for the past 4 days ive been pumping and adding it to the same bottle of BM in the fridge, I just read this was bad...
Also, I shook the bottle and just found out that was bad!
can i still give him this milk on monday?! i cant pump enough milk by then to replace it!!!!

[hotlama]

I don't know if it's bad or not but I have been doing that ever since I came home from the hospital and DD hasn't had any problems.

When I work, I will pump all week and then whatever is left over on Friday, I mix together and freeze. When I do this, I make sure that I put the date from the first bottle. If I freeze a stash on Friday, I put Mondays date on the bag.

I don't add warm milk to cold milk though. I put the freshly pumped milk in the fridge to get cold and then I add it to the other milk once it's the same temperature.

[hotlama]

PS. Welcome to the boards!

[Stephanie]

Shaking the bottle does not make milk unusable. It just breaks down the proteins or something like that. I can't remember exactly what happens.

I think the rule is, you can mix milk from the same 24 hour period. I think it mostly has to do with when to toss milk. You have to toss it when the oldest milk has expired (usually around 8 days in the frig). So, if you have 8 day old milk and 6 day old milk mixed, you have to toss them both. It could be something else, but that made sense to me.

[madelsmama]

What Stephanie said. It has more to do with when the milk expires. I mix milk frequently; even frozen and fresh. If she doesn't drink that milk during the day, I through it out.

[Amy_G_]

I wouldn't keep milk in the fridge for the whole week and then freeze. i would just freeze smaller amounts all week long. You can always stick small amounts into an ice cube tray. when frozen, pop out and put into a ziplock bag. put all the same cubes from the same week into the same bag, or partial weeks. when you need milk, thaw out as many milk cubes as you need. most ice cubes are about 1 ounce.

[newmominct]

amy the cube idea is great! i'll def. try!
thanks for all the imput, and thanks, hotlama, for the welcome! you laides have def. been a big help! having to throw away the milk would def. make me very sad...

[hotlama]

I wouldn't keep milk in the fridge for the whole week and then freeze. i would just freeze smaller amounts all week long. You can always stick small amounts into an ice cube tray. when frozen, pop out and put into a ziplock bag. put all the same cubes from the same week into the same bag, or partial weeks. when you need milk, thaw out as many milk cubes as you need. most ice cubes are about 1 ounce.


This is a good idea. I'm going to try it.

[Mary_Mary]

I always just pumped and put the milk in the fridge.

Next time I pumped I would put THAT milk in the fridge in the bottle I'd just then pumped in to.

NEXT time I pumped I would consolidate the first two bottles as needed (to get however much I needed for a feeding) and label with the date of the earliest pumping.

The next day at work my daughter would have whatever bottles she needed and if any were left over she would get the earliest pumped one the next day. (Remember that fresh breastmilk is good for 8 days in the fridge.)

I usually only froze any milk if I had a surplus on Friday. (And the only reason I froze milk then was because I have a lipase imbalance and by Monday the milk would have gone 'soapy' smelling on me. So on Fridays I would pastuerize any surplus milk and freeze in breastmilk storage bags.)

Oh, and I often labeled the bottles #1, #2, #3 so that the day care provider would know which bottle to feed first without having to figure out which bottle was pumped first, this helped especially when I had two bottles that were pumped the same day and so had the same date on them.

[jodibug]

I mix my milk all the time..... but I never have milk that is more than 4 days old. On the rare occasion that I get more than 24oz in the fridge, the I start freezing it.

I also stick a small post it note on the oldest bottle (or bottles) to let the babysitter know that which bottle needs used first.

[klynnw]

I also mix milk all the time....no problems with it.

[dodoe80]

I mix milk too, but usually all withing a 48 hour period and usually always have DCP use that bottle first. I keep 4 bottles in frig and if I accumulate more then that in a day/week then when I pump next I will put in a BM freezer bag and freeze that milk until DS depletes the frig stash. Usually bottles get drank within 48 hours of being pumped unless it is pumped right before the weekend or whatever. Usually doesn't stay in frig more then 3+ days.