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How To Warm Breast Milk On The Go—6 Best Ways To Have Milk Ready

How To Warm Breast Milk On The Go

If you need to travel and don’t have fresh breast milk to give your baby, the next best solution is to take frozen breast milk and warm it while on the go.

Thawed breast milk is perfectly safe for feeding, but like there are rules to how you properly store breast milk, there are rules to how you should thaw frozen breast milk.

This article will cover the safest and best ways to warm breast milk temperature when you’re on the go.

How to warm breast milk on the go

There is more than one way to warm breast milk when you’re out of the house and need to feed your baby. You can scrap the idea of warming breast milk and feed cold breast milk or room temperature breast milk.

The only issue with this is that most babies prefer warm or heated, and sometimes, little tummies don’t tolerate it well.

To warm up breast milk safely, try one of the following methods.

1. Bring thawed breast milk

If you store breast milk in your freezer and know that you’ll be out and about and need to feed your baby, go ahead and pull that frozen breast milk from the freezer and let it thaw.

Bringing thawed breast milk with you takes about two hours to feed it to your baby safely. Store it in an insulated cooler bag to maintain the temperature.

2. Get a portable bottle warmer

A bottle warmer can be a lifesaver on a trip, vacation, or unexpected circumstances. If you will be gone for an extended period, keep the frozen breast milk inside a cooler to keep it cold for up to 12 hours.

When your baby is ready to feed, use the bottle warmer to heat breast milk to the desired temperature. Then give the baby bottle to your infant.

3. Stop and get hot water

If you don’t have a bottle warmer, getting warm water or hot water from a restaurant or gas station is an excellent way to go from freezing breast milk to room temperature or warm breast milk on the go.

Ask the manager, waitstaff, or clerk for a cup of hot water for a baby bottle, and most businesses will happily oblige.

Submerge the baby bottle in warm water for a few minutes, and then test the temperature by putting a few drops on your wrist or forearm to ensure it’s not too hot.

4. Bring a thermos of hot water with you

If you know you won’t have the opportunity to stop anywhere to get water to warm breast milk bottles up, bring along a thermos of hot water so that you can warm bottles yourself on the go, no matter where you are.

5. Let your breast milk thaw overnight in the refrigerator

If heating breast milk from a frozen milk state is something that you don’t want to mess with, and if your child doesn’t mind cold milk or room temperature milk, then you can thaw the breast milk overnight in the refrigerator so that your bottle is good to go for the next day.

6. Bring baby formula

Human milk is the preferred method of feeding for many parents. Still, suppose you don’t want to worry about overheating breast milk, safely thawing frozen milk, or warming bottles. In that case, there’s nothing wrong with having some baby formula with you when you leave the house, even if it’s a “worst-case scenario” backup plan.

With baby formula, you can bottle feed quickly and still give your baby plenty of beneficial nutrients by simply using warm tap water to make a bottle.

How To Warm Breast Milk On The Go

How long is breast milk good for after warming?

To remain safe to feed your baby, make sure that when you store breast milk you follow specific guidelines that doctors and experts have meticulously studied.

Breast milk must be handled and stored with care to avoid illness, spoilage, and bacterial growth.

Previously frozen milk

Thawed and previously frozen milk can remain on a countertop or somewhere that is at room temperature for up to two hours safely. 

It can also be in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours (or up to one day).

Never refreeze breast milk that has been frozen before. 

Frozen milk, once thawed, can either be consumed or discarded, never refrozen.

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Freshly expressed breast milk

Human milk storage information regarding baby bottles can be confusing because of many factors. However, knowing the rules regarding stored milk can help you to avoid waste. 

The rules are again different regarding fresh breast milk or recently expressed breast milk.

If you have recently expressed breast milk, you can leave it at room temperature for up to four hours before feeding it to your baby or putting it in the fridge.

If you put it in the refrigerator, recently expressed breast milk is suitable for up to four days before it must be discarded. If you freeze this breast milk, it must be used within twelve months, although six months is best for optimal nutritional benefits.

Note

More research is being done all the time regarding the ideal temperature of bottles and proper storage of breast milk. 

Some institutions, such as the Cleveland Clinic, are now saying that expressed breast milk that was recently pumped is good for up to six hours at room temperature.

Always use your judgment as a parent to determine which guidelines you think are best. The CDC still states that four hours is the safest standard.

Leftover bottles

If you start to feed a baby’s bottle and your baby falls asleep, loses interest, or doesn’t finish, you have options with what to do with that leftover milk.

In this case, you can present a bottle that has already been in your baby’s mouth for up to two hours after. After this point, it must be discarded.

What to do with refrigerated breast milk

More tips to regulate temperature

If you know you will need to warm bottles while on the go, there are a few more tips that may help you to keep the milk at a suitable temperature so that you won’t have to discard or waste it.

The ideal temperature

Too much heat is not a good thing when warming breast milk. If you accidentally overheat the breast milk to a temperature over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the enzymes start to break down.

Using warm running water to bring the bottle to room temperature or slightly warmer is all that needs to be done. You put the whole bottle under the water and let it slowly warm.

The perfect temperature that many babies seem to prefer is right around 98-99 degrees. There is no need to heat breast milk any further than this. 

Having a thermometer for liquids can keep track of your specific temperature.

1. Don’t place breast milk bags in the microwave

Microwave equals warmed milk, right? While it can undoubtedly heat breast milk, putting storage bags in the microwave is not recommended. 

Running warm water is less dangerous, and feeding bottles that have been warmed in this way can help to prevent hot spots.

2. Swirl to separate

Breast milk tends to separate when it is cooled. One layer of fat rises to the top of the container, while the milk layer is on the bottom. 

After warming the bottle, mix it by swirling it gently a few times. This will incorporate the layers of fat and milk back together.

3. Choose frozen milk with the oldest date

Warm bottles are the oldest first if you leave home and have to take frozen breast milk to heat on the go. This will help you prevent waste, as frozen milk lasts only twelve months.

4. Keep ice packs and an insulated cooler handy

Having the necessary things in your possession for any outing is the best way to be prepared. Keeping ice packs in the freezer for when you need to travel and an insulated cooler that will hold your bottles is ideal.

How to heat breast milk away from home

Full-term infants typically eat every four hours at a minimum. Warming breast milk when you’re out of the house is a practice where you must keep track of the time and make bottles available.

It sounds like a lot to remember, and it is, but keeping this information handy can make it so much easier!

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