Can You Reheat Bottle Or Breast Milk More Than Once?

Introduction

Breast milk is considered to be loaded with nutrition. Due to its health benefits, some women do not let the unused breast milk go away. They preserve it in the fridge and reheat it the next morning. In this entire procedure, it is important to ensure that all the immunity-boosting qualities and nutrients are properly preserved. By implementing the best storing and reheating practices of breast milk, you can maintain its health benefits for a longer time.

Can You Reheat Bottle Or Breast Milk More Than Once?

Is it safe to reheat your breast milk multiple times?

Fresh milk is anytime better than reheated milk. But sometimes, you need to reuse the milk to prevent its wastage. Reheating breast milk is safe when you do it once. It is not advisable to reheat it several times because every time you reheat the milk, it loses some portion of its immunologic properties and Vitamin C content. Thus, avoid reheating it multiple times. Pump only the amount of milk that your baby requires. This will prevent wastage and also the need to store and reheat it again.

What is the right way to store the breast milk?

Rightly stored breast milk is healthy for your baby. You need to ensure that you should refrigerate “unused breast milk” within thirty minutes after stopping to feed the baby. If you exceed this time, then bacteria can begin forming inside the milk. The reason being the baby’s saliva that goes into the milk at the time of feeding. On putting the bottle of breast milk inside the fridge, you will notice that the fat starts to separate from it. So, you have to ensure to shake the bottle properly before you reheat it.

Pumped milk should always be stored in milk storage bags, that are specially designed to store breast milk. Do not replace these bags by your standard throwaway bottle liners and commonly used storage bags in the kitchen. They are not just less durable but also prone to leakage. So, the chances of contamination are more. Before you seal the bag, take out all the air present inside it.

At the time of filling the milk storage bags, leave some space at the top. This is because, breast milk has a tendency to expand when it freezes. So, leaving an inch of space at the top will prevent it coming out of it. Breast milk that is just pumped out can be kept in insulated coolers with ice packs for about twenty-four hours.

What is the right way to reheat your breast milk?

After the right storage of breast milk, it is very important to reheat it properly. This will keep its nutrition intact. To reheat the breast milk, you need to warm some water on the stove. Now take a container and pour all the milk that you want to reheat. Place the milk container in the hot water container.

In some time, you will notice that the temperature of milk will increase. When you find that the milk is reached to the desired temperature, take it out and fill it into the milk bottle and feed your baby. Microwave is not allowed to reheat the breast milk as it reduces its nutritional content.