How To Keep Breast Milk Cold

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With the benefits that chest milk holds for both mother and child, it is no surprise that you would want to save as much of it as possible. As the percentage of working mothers continues to steadily increase, more new moms are needing reliable storage for their breast milk. Have y'all e'er found yourself asking the following question?

How do I keep chest milk cold at piece of work? If you don't accept a refrigerator bachelor at piece of work, the best way to store breast milk is with the combination of special containers designed for holding milk, waterproof labels, ice packs, and insulated coolers.

Containers, labels, coolers, and ice packs. As if you already weren't busy plenty trying to learn the ropes of motherhood.

It tin definitely be a lot to keep track of. By the fourth dimension you lot cease reading this, you'll have a better thought of the why's and how's of storing breast milk at work.

How To Proceed Your Breast Milk Safe At Work

You lot might be worried almost using a community fridge at piece of work. I've seen stories that made me cringe where a co-worker saw a mom's breast milk in the community refrigerator, didn't know what information technology was, and then used it as their coffee creamer.

Other offices have policies where they toss annihilation in the community refrigerator at work on Friday afternoon then things are not forgotten and left to rot in the fridge all weekend.

Losing all of that hard piece of work from pumping would be and so awful!

If you don't want to run a risk your liquid gilded with your customs refrigerator at work, or if you do not take a shared refrigerator in your role, in that location are a few options.

One creative pick to shop breast milk at work is to utilize this tiny mini fridge (link to Amazon) that you can go along on your desk.

I loved this mini fridge as a mode to continue the milk safely inside my control. After I was done pumping I used information technology to go on a few cans of La Croix at my desk.

The mini refrigerator was also super useful in case I forgot an ice pack.

Another option is to apply a breast milk libation. These are coolers that you can use to keep cool with water ice packs that you freeze the night before.

Types of Coolers and Their Benefits

With and so many coolers out there, how do yous decide which cooler meets your needs? What exactly should you exist looking for in a cooler?

The primary difference that a cooler designed to carry breast milk has against other coolers is the insulated lining.

Whatever cooler that has an insulated lining is created to keep what is within cold for a longer amount of time.

At present, as far as features get, y'all will desire to know how much milk you can deport, if yous need to go an water ice pack, and if your libation has the chapters to hold frozen milk.

Check out the tabular array to find more information on the peak breast milk coolers and their options.

Personally, I used two different breast milk coolers.

When I first started pumping at work, I pumped into Avent bottles because they attached straight to my Spectra pump. This PackIt freezable cooler was cracking with lots of room to store bottles considering the sides of the cooler served equally the ice pack.

Subsequently on, I ended upwards using a converter and then I could pump straight into Dr. Brown bottles. This way, I wouldn't lose any drops from transferring milk between bottles. (You can read more than about that in this article here).

When I wanted to send my tall Dr. Brown bottles, I found that this cooler worked the best.

The table shows coolers with all of their different options.

Cooler	How many bags/bottles?	Special Features	Ice Pack Included	Cooler Material	Frozen Milk Choice
PackIt Freezable Baby Bottle Libation	4- 5oz bottles	Remove divider to increase storage	Freezable gel walls	Nontoxic poly canvas	Between six-8 hours
Medela Chest Milk Cooler Set	4- 5oz bottles	Fits in select Medela breast pump bags	Yes	Microfiber, Plastic	Between four-5 hours
Sarah Wells Common cold Gilt Chest Milk Cooler	4- 8oz bottles	Additional storage pockets	Aye	Nylon	Up to 24 hours
Itzy Ritzy Breast Milk Cooler	three- 8oz bottles	Fits Tall Bottles like Dr. Brownish's	No	Nylon	Upwardly to 24 hours
Lekebaby Breast Milk Libation	half dozen- 5oz bottles	Top and Front open, extra zipper pocket	Yes	Aluminum foil, Oxford fabric	Not recommended
YARWO Cooler	6- nine oz bottles	Extra storage, holds cold or warm milk	Yeah	Aluminum foil, Oxford material	Not recommended
V-COOOL Premium Chest Milk Libation	6- 5oz bottles	Works equally lunch pack and bottle storage	No	Oxford cloth, Aluminum moving picture, PU, Nylon	Not recommended
Momcozy Insulated Chest Milk Libation	iv- 8oz bottles	Fits big bottles similar Dr. Brown's, Detachable buckle	No	Insulated tin foil, Composite fabric	Not recommended
Gogoso Chest Pump Bag	3 to v- 5oz bottles	Both a cooler/ breast pump bag, works as a backpack, USB charging pot	No	Polyester	Non recommended
Tommee Tippee Insulated Canteen Purse & Bottle Cooler	2- 5 to 9oz bottles (depends on brand)	Keep bottles at different temperatures	No	Synthetic	Not recommended

Breast Milk Containers

You now have an thought near the type of cooler y'all want merely side by side is to effigy out what blazon of containers to utilize to hold the chest milk.

Washing your easily with soap and h2o before handling chest milk is highly recommended to keep germs to a minimum.

Breast milk can then be stored in the post-obit containers:

• Capped food-form glass container- reusable, no plastic, you can detect DIY kits for certain sizes to be turned into baby bottles
• BPA-free plastic baby bottles- reusable, no demand for extra DIY, exact amount shown on bottle
• Breast milk storage bags- stores more compactly, conveniently use the bag and dispose, piece of cake to label, amounts shown on numberless

When using bottles or glass containers to store breast milk, make sure that you have a lid that fits your container to avoid spillage.

Chest milk bags were designed for single use and will include a double-attachment seal. Make sure to securely seal bags after filling them and to never overfill the bags.

Remember: Breast milk should non be stored in general use plastic bags or disposable bottle liners. These bags tend to tear when frozen and do not allow y'all to accurately document the amount in the bag.

How Much Chest Milk Should I Store in Each Purse?

After deciding on the blazon of container, y'all now must decide how much breast milk to put in each container.

While it may seem best to fill each container to the brim, Mayo Clinic suggests that once you thaw chest milk, information technology is best to use it inside 24 hours.

The best way to determine how much chest milk you should store in each container is to store enough for one feeding.

If your baby drinks around six ounces then storing 6 ounces per container will be a proficient starting place. You can besides take "actress" bags that concur betwixt ane-2 ounces in case y'all take an extra hungry baby during a feeding.

When storing breast milk, yous can shop it in the fridge for up to five days and in the freezer for up to six months.

We have included a reference list of the different storage methods along with their timeframes below.

• Freezer- Stores for up to 6 months
• Refrigerator- Stores for up to 5 days
• Breast milk cooler- Stores for up to 1 day
• Room temperature- Stores for upwards to 4-6 hours

New vs. Sometime Chest Milk

Depending on how long you have kept your breast milk, y'all may notice changes in the color or even the composition of your milk.

As your infant gets older, your chest milk volition start to suit to meet your baby's needs.

When you lot're deciding to mix newer milk with older milk, call back to cool it down in the fridge so that the frozen milk does non beginning to thaw.

Breast milk that has been frozen should be labeled with the date in club to effectively utilize all of your milk inside the recommended time flow.

Pub Med has reported that the amount of Vitamin C steadily decreases the longer the breast milk is kept in the refrigerator or freezer.

Keeping this in listen, information technology is all-time to use your chest milk from oldest to newest in order to get the most nutrition out of each bottle.

Tip: Gently warm milk nether warm running h2o to thoroughly thaw before utilize. Though this method may take longer, it evenly warms the milk with out causing some parts to get to hot or to stay cold.

After you accept successfully thawed your breast milk, always check the temperature on the within of your wrist. If the milk feels hot and then let for it to absurd down to room temperature before feeding your infant.

You may also notice that the thawed milk has a slight alter in color. This is very normal as the milk and fat content tend to separate once frozen.

If you think that the milk may have spoiled, you tin check for chunks that don't mix in and aroma. Breast milk does odor different from other milk only it will smell sour when it goes bad.

Breast Milk Color

You may notice that there have been several different colors of your breast milk. Fifty-fifty if the breast milk is non white in color, it doesn't mean that it has gone rancid. Check out the common colors and their reasons below:

• Green- Acquired past eating greed food dye, vitamin supplements, or green foods.
• Pink, Orangish, Cherry- Acquired by eating foods these colors, or that accept red, yellowish, or orange food dye.
• Brown, Rusty, Blood-Tinged- Causes may be croaky nipples or by blood mixing in with the chest milk. Bleeding volition usually become away afterward a few days. If bleeding doesn't get away, consult your dr..
• White, Yellow- Mutual colors, may exist caused by eating yellow- or orangish-pigmented food.
• Black- Caused by the certain antibiotics, including Minocin. Think to consult your doctor near chest feeding before taking any medications.

Breast milk will modify equally your baby grows, after existence frozen, or after existence refrigerated.

If you are concerned with the colour, corporeality, or composition of your breast milk, you should schedule a coming together with your doctor to discuss possible solutions.

Let'south Sum information technology Up

Being a new mom brings on many new blithesome moments and times that may make yous feel like hiding under a blanket. Yous can now feel more confident in how to determine between breast milk coolers and the proper ways of storing breast milk.

Now, simply recollect:

• Not all breast milk coolers were created equal.
• Recall to check if the cooler you chose needs an ice pack.
• Check the recommended bottle sizes for your libation
• Store plenty breast milk for one complete feeding
• Breast milk may come up in different colors depending on what you swallow

Resource

CDC Recommendations on Breast Milk Storage

Source: https://pumpingmamas.com/keep-breast-milk-cold-at-work/

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