When you are able to give breast milk to your babies, you should count yourself lucky. This is probably
one of the best things you can do as a mother. Enjoy this time to form a close relationship with your
newborn and grab the opportunity to hold them whenever you can. As you resume your normal life
after you give birth, you may notice that there may be times that you will be asked to leave your home
for work. You may not always be there when they get hungry, and while you want to take them
everywhere you go, this is just not an option. How can you concentrate on your job when you constantly
have to keep an eye on your little one? To be able to cope with the demands, you opt for pumping your
milk and storing it. Whenever your baby cries out in hunger, your partner can just grab the milk from the
fridge and feed them.
If you find yourself in situations like this, you will need to know how to store it safely. In today’s fast-
paced society, it can be difficult for you to constantly find the time to breast feed your child. When you
are in a public place, this can also be highly inconvenient. When you find yourself stuck in a situation,
the best option for now would be to use expressed breast milk. This involves mechanically squeezing
milk from the breast and storing it in a bottle to be used at a later time. You can normally use a pump to
squeeze the milk out, and this is especially handy when only the father or the nanny is at home watching
your child.
When stored correctly, the milk can last for quite some time. There are plastic bottles and bags available
in the stores that were especially made for holding and storing this kind of nutrition. You can simply put
it in the freezer or refrigerator so that you are able to extend its shelf life. However, keeping it in the
freezer will make the milk lose some of its nutrients, antibodies, and enzymes. This is what happens to
food set aside in the same manner. But what it all comes down to is that it is still much healthier than
the formula that you purchase.
To test if the milk is still fresh and safe for your child, you simply have to smell it. You should be able to
store it at room temperature as well. However, its shelf life only extends to six or eight hours. Anything
over that will be detrimental to your baby’s health. If you’ve followed all the rules but sometimes find
that your baby does not respond to it as well as actual breastfeeding, the culprit could be the milk
bottle. Your baby could have been so used to breastfeeding that they experience some difficulty in
learning to suckle from the bottle. In cases like these, you can probably introduce the bottle a few times
in the first 4 weeks of their lives. That way, it won’t be such a biggest adjustment for them when the
time calls for it.
