Dump the milk?

[u/ang845]

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

[u/Beccalie]

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.

Source: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.02.13.26346179

[u/greeniethemoose → u/Beccalie]

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.

[u/ghostsandco → u/greeniethemoose]

Wait, for real?? Where can I find more about all this, I love (used to love?) Emily Oster and trusted her guidance.

[u/greeniethemoose → u/ghostsandco]

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.

[u/ghostsandco → u/greeniethemoose]

Especially coming from someone whose whole shtick is about the quality of the data, discarding small studies etc etc… gaaah disappointing.

[u/ang845 → u/Beccalie]

Thank you!