How long can breast milk be preserved? Can I bottle feed my 5 months old baby?

Question

Accepted Answer

Yes u can bottle feed. If u r parallely breast feeding then u should choose the right bottle which goes well with breastfeeding otherwise baby will start prefering one over the other. I have personally used Medela calma bottles during the initial few months and then Phillips Avent natural feeding bottles later. They are designed to give the same feel as feeding from the mother so that the baby won't resist breastmilk while parallely feeding through the bottle and vice versa. It worked well for my kids. You can try using any of these bottles.

Make sure to store the pumped milk in sterilised bottles and the breastpump is kept clean and hygienic before and after every use.

You can keep pumped milk at Warm room temperature for  3 to 4 hours, at cooler temperature for 4 to 6 hours. Fresh milk Stored at the back of the refrigerator not near the door, for 3 to 4 days. Stored in freezer unit less than 4 degrees Celsius for more than a month to four months. If it is a deep freezer, Store it in the back of the freezer. Here the temperature will be constant. Milk stored in deep freezer at - 20 degrees Celsius can stay fresh for six to twelve months. Milk stored in this temperature is safe to consume However if it is used after a long duration some of the lipids in the milk may undergo degradation lowering the quality of milk. For warming the milk before use, Keep the milk bottle in a cup containing hot water. Do not heat the milk in direct heat.

Answer

you can keep the breast milk at room temperature for 3 hours and in refrigerator for two days but it is always advisable to consume it within 24 hours of expressing out the breast milk you need to make sure that if you take it out from refrigerator you would need not to boil it but boil water and then you put the container in it for 5 minutes after switching off the flame 735