Combining pumped milk from different sessions?

Mereou12

I know this question has been asked eleventy-billion times, but I don't see it on the first page or two (and couldn't find the answer on Kellymom), so I'm asking again -- Can you combine pumped milk in the fridge from different pumping sessions?

I'm only ever able to pump very small amounts, and it's such a waste having bottles of 1-2.5 oz sitting in the fridge. I can combine those bottles, right? I'm almost positive that the answer is yes....but I wanted to check. And do I need to chill the new bottle first, or can I just dump warm milk in with the previously pumped milk?

TIA.

LnR70707

As long as they are the same temp...yes.  You don't want to dump warm milk into the refrigerated bottles.

mie

Yes, it's fine.

MrsClark8109

Chill them both and then combine. If you combine one from Tuesday with one from Monday leave Monday's date on the bottle ( ie date by the oldest milk in the bottle)

I would pump 2 oz at a time and wait until I have 8 oz of chilled before I would put it in the freezer because I didn't want to have a zillion bottles/bags in the freezer. I know that when they are going to daycare they will definately go through 8oz ...

jessmae10

I believe the rule of thumb is you can combine as long as it is within 24 hrs.  So the oldest milk should not be more than 24 hrs older than the newest milk you are adding to it.  Also, you can add warm milk to chilled milk- ONLY IF the warm milk you are adding is not more than 50% of the chilled milk, otherwise you need to chill both before combining.  Let me see what I can find. 

This is what I found on Kellymom...

While it was originally thought that a mother had to cool her fresh breastmilk before combining it with previously expressed cooled milk, the latest research now shows that you may pump directly into already refrigerated or cooled milk as long as the milk is added within 24 hours of the first milk expressed. You should then follow the storage recommendations based upon the time and date of the first milk expressed. You may pump directly into milk that has been stored at room temperature as long as you do so within 10 hours. This milk would need to then be used.

Here is the link for that page...not sure I will post it right, but here goes...

https://www.motherandchildhealth.com/Breastfeeding/Becky/storage_breastmilk.html

Hope that helps, good luck