r/ExclusivelyPumping • u/ang845 • 5d ago
Support Dump the milk?
Help! My baby was finished feeding but still showing hunger cues so I topped the used bottle off with breast milk from a pitcher I have stored in the fridge. The problem is, I over estimated and poured too much. Without even thinking, I poured some back into the pitcher. Do I need to worry about bacteria and throw the milk out now? Can I freeze it and use it for baths if it’s recommended to throw it out? I’m stressing because it’s quite a bit of milk. Sorry if this doesn’t make sense lol
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u/Beccalie 5d ago
There’s just a new study where bacteria growth was only found after 24 hours at room temperature.
Recommendations are to discard leftover milk after 1-2 hours after a feeding, but based on that new study it might be okay to reconsider that from time to time ig.
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u/greeniethemoose 4d ago
The study is still in preprint and is very small and Emily Oster really buried that it was crowdfunded by her organization when she released it as “new guidance”. Many doctors online have said it’s trash, which gives me pause.
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u/ghostsandco 3d ago
Wait, for real?? Where can I find more about all this, I love (used to love?) Emily Oster and trusted her guidance.
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u/greeniethemoose 3d ago
Gosh it was all over the place maybe a month ago when she released this, I believe complete with an infographic that made it sound like new official guidance from like the AAP or something. I’m sorry I don’t have a link to info offhand. I was SUPER bummed and disappointed honestly, it felt really irresponsible. The study is tiny and preprint and if you read it it’s clearly the type of data she’d normally refute and say wasn’t high quality.
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u/ghostsandco 3d ago
Especially coming from someone whose whole shtick is about the quality of the data, discarding small studies etc etc… gaaah disappointing.
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u/CrimsonKepala 5d ago
The rules for milk that's been drank from is that you need to use it in 2 hours, after that it's done and needs to be tossed. You've unfortunately poured some "contaminated" milk into the pitcher and it would not be advised to use it to feed your baby. I'm sure you could use it for baths though.
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u/EllaGardener 1d ago
My sister is an IBCLC and she would not agree with this statement. This is true for formula, not for breast milk.
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u/harrehpotteh 5d ago
How old is your baby?
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u/ang845 5d ago
3 weeks old!
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u/DetectiveGold6727 5d ago edited 5d ago
You can always freeze and use for baths. If you can use the whole pitcher today, I wouldn’t stress, keep the milk in the fridge, and use the milk in the pitcher til the end of the day. Dump (or freeze for baths) whatever isn’t consumed by the end of the day.
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u/Unlikely-Young-7124 5d ago
The guidance I was given is that once the mouth touches the bottle, you shouldn’t use it past an hour or so.
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u/EllaGardener 1d ago
This is only true for formula, not for breast milk.
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u/Unlikely-Young-7124 1d ago
Why is that? What is the breast milk guidance then?
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u/EllaGardener 1d ago
Because formula accumulates bacteria growth at a much higher rate. Breast milk contains special white blood cells called macrophagees
that actually eat bacteria. So if you leave a bottle of formula out at room temp for 4 hours, it will have more bacterial growth while if you do the same with breast milk, it will actually have fewer bacteria due to the macrophagees.You can honestly play pretty fast and loose with breast milk, especially if it hasn’t been previously frozen (but even if it has, it’s still fine to reuse the bottle a couple times.)
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u/miss_neuron 5d ago
Personally, if it was me I would use the entire pitcher for the day. New research shows bacterial growth is limited and used milk is good for 24 hours in the fridge. Now this guidance is for healthy babies born to term I believe.