At Breastfeeding Week this August 1-7, there are things that are no less important for us to learn, which is a good way to store breast milk so that the nutrition is maintained. For those of you who have just had a baby, the term expressed breast milk may already be a familiar term. Expressed breast milk is breast milk that is not directly consumed by the baby, but is stored in a container before being consumed.
As a parent, you need to know that the nutritional content in breast milk is quite sensitive to the surrounding environment. If you store expressed breast milk incorrectly, the nutritional content can be reduced. As a result, the baby does not get the maximum benefit from breast milk. To keep breast milk durable, know in advance the right way to store it.
- Maintain cleanliness
Everyday, you use your hands to do various things, from eating, working, to cleaning the house. Therefore, your hands can be a breeding ground for germs and bacteria that come from objects you touch. For this reason, before expressing breast milk, make sure your hands are clean and have washed your hands to between the nails with hand washing soap. Also make sure the soap you use is rinsed clean under running water.
In addition to hand hygiene, you also need to keep the bottles where you store your breast milk and your breast pump sterile from germs. To sterilize, wash bottles and breast pumps with dishwashing soap. Then, blanch the bottles and pumps in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. As an alternative, you can also use electric sterilizers that are widely sold in the market.
- Choosing a bottle for expressing breast milk
To store expressed breast milk, plastic bottles or plastic breast milk bags are actually better than glass bottles. The reason is that glass bottles crack easily, exposing breast milk to air from outside the storage container.
Do not just choose a plastic bottle. Choose a plastic bottle that includes the BPA free logo. BPA is a chemical that is commonly used to make food containers. However, food containers with heated BPA can also cause a number of chemicals to be released into the food stored in them. So that breast milk is not contaminated with harmful chemicals, do your research before buying bottles for expressing breast milk.
To provide double protection, put the bottle in another packing box before putting it in the refrigerator. This method can prevent leakage of breast milk which makes it contaminated by air.
- Principles of breast milk storage
Breast milk that has been put in a sterile container can be stored for several hours to several months. The duration of storage itself depends on the temperature. At room temperature or around 25 degrees Celsius, expressed breast milk can be stored for up to 6 hours before its nutritional content changes. More than that time period, breast milk is no longer good for consumption by infants. When stored in a cooler with additional ice packs, expressed breast milk lasts up to 24 hours. If you store expressed breast milk in the refrigerator with a temperature of at least 4 degrees Celsius, it will last up to 5 days. If you place it in the freezer at -18 degrees Celsius or lower, breast milk can last up to 6 months.
Even though breast milk can last up to 6 months after being frozen, there is still a possibility that the nutrients contained in it will decrease, especially the vitamin C content. The longer expressed breast milk is frozen, the less vitamin C content it contains. Even though the nutrition is slightly reduced, stored exclusive breast milk is still a better source of baby nutrition when compared to formula milk.
Another trick so you don't forget about the length of time you stored your breast milk, label it and write down the date and time you stored the breast milk and make sure you use expressed breast milk that was stored earlier.
- Determine the size of the bottle of breast milk
One bottle of breast milk should only store expressed breast milk for one serving. Therefore, divide the milk into several bottles according to the baby's ability to consume breast milk. For starters, you can put 60 to 120 ml of breast milk per bottle. If your baby can consume more than this amount, you can gradually increase the amount.
If the baby is able to finish up to one full bottle of breast milk, make sure you replace the bottle with a larger capacity. Avoid filling the bottle to the brim to avoid leakage. The reason is, expressed breast milk can expand when it is frozen.
Those are easy ways and tricks to store breast milk so that the nutrition is maintained. You can use these methods to ensure that your baby receives the maximum benefits from breast milk. Come on, always provide the best nutrition for your beloved baby. #LiveExcellently