What happens if you overheat breast milk

Read on to learn how to warm up breast milk and safety precautions you should take. Before offering the bottle to your baby, test the breast milk temperature.

You can do this by pouring a bit on your wrist. It should be warm, but not hot. You can also warm the milk by holding the sealed bag or bottle under very hot running water from the faucet.

This takes longer and uses more water. You could also burn or scald your hand. To warm frozen breast milk , remove the frozen breast milk from the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight.

Then, follow the same instructions for warming breast milk from the fridge. Never put breast milk in a microwave. Microwaves are also believed to damage the nutrients and antibodies in breast milk.

Some parents swear by using a bottle warmer to heat breast milk or formula. A bottle warmer is a simple contraption used to help you heat up a bottle.

Manufacturers of bottle warmers claim these devices heat more evenly than a microwave. However, opinions are mixed if they are actually useful or easier than steeping breast milk in hot water. The potential disadvantage of a bottle warmer is the increased chance of overheating breast milk and killing beneficial nutrients. In a study , researchers tested how warm different portions of breast milk can get in a bottle warmer. Most bottle warmers take a few minutes to reach desired warmth.

Once heated, it should be gently shaken to even out the temperature and mix the fat particles into the milk. Test a drop of milk on the top of your hand before feeding. It should feel lukewarm. Even though the use of the microwave for warming human milk is tempting, it is not wise.

Please advise caregivers in daycare settings to remember these precautions when preparing your milk for your little one. For best printing results, open the llli. Although you can view the site well in any browser, printing from other browsers might not operate correctly. Click the Print button that is displayed on the web page not the Print command on the browser menu or toolbar. This opens the browser print window. The window displays a preview of the document that will be printed. The preview might take a minute to display, depending on the document size.

In the Printer box, select the desired printer. You'd be surprised to know that it is a much lower temperature than you might think.

There are lots of great resources out there about handling breast milk, most of them written by doctors , and you should definitely take a look at some of those resources. The majority of them will advise you to heat milk in a bowl of warm water. Seems easy right? Well, as new parents, we definitely didn't do it correctly ourselves.

Fortunately, I stumbled across an article by the folks at babygearlab. Best Practices for Handling Breast Milk. Our Editors independently research, test, and rate the best products. We only make money if you purchase a product through our links, and we never accept free products from manufacturers. Learn more. Expressing Breast Milk Whether back to work or separate from baby for some much coveted "me time", expressing breast milk is something that most mothers tackle to maintain the breastfeeding relationship.

Tips For Handling Breast Milk We've assembled the following tips, from credible medical sources, on four essentials every pumping mother needs to know about handling expressed breast milk: How to store it How to warm it Don't reuse it Nutrient degradation when it is warmed too high How Should I Store Breast Milk?

Follow these guidelines to keep your expressed breast milk healthy for your baby: Wash hands thoroughly before expressing or handling milk. The color of milk will vary depending on mom's diet. Don't worry. This is normal. Use clean containers and pumping equipment that have been washed in hot, soapy water and rinsed thoroughly.

Boiling items after washing is important where the water supply may not be clean. If this is the case, BabyGearLab recommends using shatterproof glass containers. Hard containers with an airtight seal are preferred for long-term storage of human milk, such as glass. Do not fill the container completely because breast milk expands as it freezes. Plastic storage bottles and bags specifically designed for human milk storage can be used. Do not use ordinary plastic storage bags or formula bottle bags.

Several expressions throughout the day may be combined. Keep each day's milk separate from other days. Write the date on the container, so you can always use the oldest milk first. Do not add fresh breast milk to already frozen milk.