Question about expressed milk storage

[Wugz22]

Quick question - if I express some milk for my LO's next feeding, say, 2 hours away… should I just leave the fresh milk at room temperature until he eats? Or should I refrigerate? I wasn't sure if refrigerating the milk destroys some of the benefits of the fresh milk or not, or is that only when you freeze it? Thanks!

 

[MommyJogger]

I would probably just leave it at room temperature as long as you're certain that it's going to be used, just so that reheating (if baby prefers very warm milk) is easier. It won't make much of a difference in 2h either way. Refrigeration can contribute to immune factor degradation, but that's more an effect of time than it is of temperature and I've not seen (doesn't necessarily mean it isn't there) anything showing the differences between those temperatures in the short term 0-4h.

 

[MommyJogger]

If you think there's a chance of it not being used in the 2 hours, it's very safe to leave it at rt for the 4h and then store it, but it's of course always ideal to put it into whichever storage temperature is the most stringent for the time it's going to be stored. (For example, breast milk that will eventually go into the freezer for several months is better to be put there immediately rather than left in the refrigerator for several days and then put in the freezer. It's nitpicky really, and you can't always have that level of foresight, but if you ever end up with excess milk and decide to donate or you end up needing to use freezer milk that's on it's last month of safe storage in the deep freezer, it gives a lot of peace of mind to know that the milk was handled with stringent food safety standards in mind.)

 

[Wugz22]

Thanks, that makes sense! We are pretty much always 2-3 hours away from a feeding, so I'll just continue leaving the milk out.