Re:Storing and freezing breast milk due to returning to work
You can freeze and/or refrigerate your pumped (or expressed) breast milk. It's important, though, to store it in clean and sterile bottles with screw caps, hard plastic cups that have tight caps, or nursing bags (pre-sterilized bags meant for breast milk). Also make sure to put a label on each indicating when the milk was pumped. You should not add fresh milk to milk that is already frozen.
For healthy full-term infants:
- You can store it at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours (at no warmer than 77° Fahrenheit, or 25° Celsius)
- You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 to 3 days at 32°–39° Fahrenheit (0°–3.9° Celsius)
You can store it in the freezer (be sure to leave about an inch of space at the top of the container or bottle to allow for expansion of the milk when it freezes) for up to 2 weeks in a freezer compartment located inside the refrigerator or for 3 to 4 months in a freezer that's self-contained and connected on top of or on the side of the refrigerator and is kept at 0° Fahrenheit (–18° Celsius). But be sure to store the milk in the back of the freezer, not in the door) or for 6 to 12 months in a deep freezer that's always 4° Fahrenheit (–20° Celsius)
If you thaw frozen milk, you can refrigerate it and use it within 24 hours, but do not refreeze it. And don't save milk from a bottle that your baby already drank out of.
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