XP: Used BM

MamaToK

If K only eats half a bottle of BM, can I put the other half in the fridge for the next feeding?  I know you're not suppose to do it with formula, but I thought you could with BM?And if so, can I do that to thawed BM that she only drank part of as long as I use it for her next feeding? 

schenkertobe

Is the half that she didn't drink leftover in her bottle that she was drinking from? If so, you should dump it. If it was separate from what she drank from, you can save it. And thawed breastmilk should be used within 24hrs.

Quesera

If you thawed it in the fridge and separated the leftover from what's in her bottle, it's ok. If you thawed it in warm water and it's cooled down you can't re heat it. I would dump it to be safe. Keep in mind that I'm super anal.

srmmm09

Whoops...

LadybugPicnic2011

Eh I use it as long as it goes right back to the fridge after she tried to drink it.  We have been doing this for 6.5 months and she hasn't gotten sick yet.

RayRay007

I just read this in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (LLL) last night:

"Real-World Milk Handling

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It's okay to reheat leftover milk that was refrigerated after a previous feeding

...

There are lots of little ways to push the evelope, but don't combine too many of them. If milk stood at room temperature for six hourse, was partially consumed, then refrigerated for a day, then frozen, then went through a freezer failure and was refrozen, um, we'd throw it out."  

BM is very sturdy and, although I don't make a habit of it, I wouldn't be too concerned about reheating leftover milk. My ILs did this once while they were baby sitting (DD was having a meltdown and wouldn't take the bottle, so they gave it to her four hours later) and I didn't bother chewing them out and DD survived.

bucklebunny1

I ebf but when I pumped early on I would reuse any leftover milk from a freshly expressed bottle but not if it had been frozen and thawed.