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XP: Daycare Instructions for Breastmilk

DS starts daycare tomorrow, and I have to fill out a food card with instructions on how to handle the breastmilk. Their usual policy is to discard any milk that is left in the bottle 5 min from the time baby stops drinking. However, they will defer to the parent's requests, and I hate to waste any of that liquid gold.

I was going to tell them to refrigerate the leftover milk and offer at the next feeding. Is this ok? The info I'm finding online is mixed. Also, what if the milk happens to be previously frozen? Finally, is it ok to heat a bottle, put it back in the fridge and then re-heat again? DS won't take a cold bottle. Any advice is appreciated!

Re: XP: Daycare Instructions for Breastmilk

  • I think you're good to let it sit out after heating for up to an hour, but not to re-refrigerate or reheat again... My kid tends to be a porker though, and we've never had her not finish a bottle. 

    Curious to see what the prevailing advice is! 

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  • I am definitely okay with them leaving the milk out and offering it again within an hour. My preference would be to leave it out vs refrigerate and heat again.

    I do not send frozen milk to daycare. I guess Ive always been a little unsure about the rules for frozen milk. I always use that for either a MOTN feeding or I give it to her first thing in the morning. I EP so that may not be possible for you.

    Edit to add my preference for letting it sit vs refrigerating and reheating is that I worry that the more you change temp the more you breakdown the milk. But, this is possibly something that I made up. I read so many things in the beginning that I have quite possibly made some of them up. I EP and never had a huge supply so we have at times been very lenient with the rules.

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  • imageJessAnnJ:
    I am definitely okay with them leaving the milk out and offering it again within an hour. My preference would be to leave it out vs refrigerate and heat again. I do not send frozen milk to daycare. I guess Ive always been a little unsure about the rules for frozen milk. I always use that for either a MOTN feeding or I give it to her first thing in the morning. I EP so that may not be possible for you.

    It's only happened a few times with DD not finishing the bottle, but we put it back in the fridge and heated up for the next feeding 3 hours later. 

    If it was frozen milk I would toss.

    In the beginning I would send smaller bottles (3oz and a 1oz) that was if they don't seem to be taking the 3oz your not losing the last 1oz. 

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  • We had the nanny rerefrigerate unfinished bottle and offer at next feeding and toss after. I.e. 3 to 4 hours from warming. Usually fresh milk but occasionally frozen. I can't find a link from mobile but there was. STudy on how quickly bacteria breeds in bm. I'll try to find in a bit.
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  • DS was BF until just recently and towards the end at DC would not always finish his bottles. Because they knew how hard it was for me to pump enough, they saved everything he didn't finish for the next feeding. They would refrigerate and reheat and we never had a problem. 
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  • Here's KM's summary info:

    https://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/milkstorage/reusing-expressedmilk/

    I guess I was thinking of the general Pardou study that BM does not get contaminated easily.

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  • kat45kat45 member
    Thanks for all of the replies. I told them to toss after an hour.
  • I'm surprised they don't have their own policy on how they handle BM vs formula. Our DC says formula and BM are discarded after an hour from warming up. They have separate hot water baths to warm up the bottles to avoid confusing BM since you aren't supposed to shake BM.
  • imagepreggersin2011:
    I'm surprised they don't have their own policy on how they handle BM vs formula. Our DC says formula and BM are discarded after an hour from warming up. They have separate hot water baths to warm up the bottles to avoid confusing BM since you aren't supposed to shake BM.

    My DD was the 3rd baby in 6 years that was BF so our DCP doesn't have a policy, she just does what we ask for her to do. 

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