Consider these general guidelines for healthy infants. However use or proper storage within four hours is optimal.

Storing Freezing And Thawing Breast Milk Medela Medela

Never mix warm milk with frozen or thawing milk.

How long is defrosted breast milk good for. This means that your thawed breast milk can safely remain in your refrigerator for a full 24 hours from the time it is completely thawed or no longer frozen not from the time it was taken from the freezer. As the milk defrosts there is still a good amount of it that is frozen. So a good rule of thumb is to avoid feeding leftovers by storing breast milk in smaller amounts.

Thawed breast milk that was previously frozen can be stored at room temperature for 1 2 hours or in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Once you defrost your breast milk you can warm it up and use it immediately leave it out at room temperature for up to four hours or place it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Freshly expressed breast milk can be kept at room temperature for up to six hours.

Once fully thawed previously frozen breast milk may be kept at room temperature for a maximum of two hours or in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Use breast milk within 24 hours of thawing in the refrigerator this means from the time it is no longer frozen or completely thawed not from the time when you took it out of the freezer. You can add freshly expressed milk to thawed milk as long as the freshly expressed milk is cooled first and the milk is still used within 24 hours.

Don t leave frozen breast milk to defrost at room temperature. Want to print the above information. Alternatively hold the bottle or bag of frozen milk under warm running water a maximum of 37 c or 99 f.

If baby does not finish milk at one feeding it is probably safe to refrigerate and offer within 1 2 hours before it is discarded. You can store the milk in a freezer for up to six months safely. If you do feed leftover breast milk offer it within a few hours of the last feed ideally possibly up to 6 8 hours later.

This iced milk will keep the temperature of the defrosted milk at or below 40 degrees. Only mix cool with cool and remember to stir don t shake. These guidelines are for healthy full term infants and older children.

But if it will make you feel better let it defrost in the sink for a couple of hours then put it in the refrigerator. Changes start to happen to breast milk after three months in the freezer. Go to quick reference card.

If the room is especially warm the limit is also four hours. Once breast milk is brought to room temperature or warmed after storing in the refrigerator or freezer it should be used within 2 hours. In a separate deep freeze unit the milk lasts up to 12 months although using it within six months is ideal.

Freezing breast milk is the only safe option for long term storage.