Q. How do I serve my expressed breast milk? **

Warmed and gently shaken. Some tips:

1. Thaw frozen milk in the refrigerator overnight.

2. Warm it up by placing the bottle into warm water.

3. Do not microwave it! It may lead to hot spots that can burn baby’s mouth.

4. The milk will separate into water and fat. Mix the bottle up before serving.

5. Once the milk has been thawed, it will last in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

6. Thawed (defrosted) milk is good for one hour at room temperature.

An unfinished (fresh, not defrosted) breast milk bottle can be placed back in the refrigerator and used within four hours. It’s okay to reheat it.

To maintain the most nutritional value of expressed breast milk and offer it safely, here is a chart with the optimal time frames for use. If a baby drinks all breast milk from a bottle or if he is premature or immune deficient, use milk within the “optimal” time frame. If your baby gets most of his nutrition directly from the breast, then the longer time frame is considered “acceptable”.