Thawed breast milk: Do not reheat again and again

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Doctor Hoang Thi Anh Tuyet - Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital.
Breast milk is the best nutritional food for babies, especially for babies under 1 year old. However, mothers should know how to defrost and reheat breast milk properly to ensure maximum nutrition for their babies.

1. Warm up breast milk

Breast milk should be kept at about 40 degrees Celsius, to avoid denaturing and necessary nutrients in milk. Therefore, mothers should not warm milk in hot water.
Keeping breast milk sterilized is extremely important, but properly reheating breast milk to keep the nutritional integrity of the baby is even more necessary. However, there are 2 big misconceptions that many mothers still make:
1.1 Warmed milk loses a lot of nutrition In fact, only heating milk in the wrong way will cause nutrition to be lost. Science has proven that the amount of vitamins as well as antibodies of breast milk will be lost when exposed to high temperatures or when strongly affected by strong milk shaking. There are many ways to warm breast milk such as using a microwave oven, warming with hot water, using a warmer... however, mothers should have careful control of the warming time as well as the contact temperature, to be able to preserve the nutritional value of breast milk. Using a milk warmer is the most commonly used method by mothers and is considered to be better than other methods to help preserve optimal nutrition. control helps the quality of milk not be lost. 1.2 Warm up the milk and let it cool down to about 37 degrees Celsius

Breast milk should be kept at about 40 degrees C
Many mothers want the milk to freeze quickly, so microwave it, or soak it in boiling water. These two ways are easy to make milk hot and old quickly destroy essential vitamins and antibodies in milk, causing breast milk to lose valuable nutrients.
First, to defrost milk, mothers should move from the freezer/freezer compartment to the cooler the night before the date of use. It can take 8-24 hours for the milk to completely dissolve, so overnight is best.
Warming breast milk seems simple, but it makes many mothers confused and confused because they don't know how to warm their milk. There are 3 very important rules that mothers should remember when warming breast milk for their babies:
Do not heat milk for too long at high temperatures Breast milk should be kept at 40 degrees Celsius Must use warmed milk within 1 hour. Do not reheat milk over and over again.

2. How long does breast milk stay in the warmer?

Bacteria can live in both hot and cold temperatures, but they can live, growing best in warm, humid conditions and especially in protein-rich environments. Your milk can be spoiled if you leave it in the warmer for a long time. That's why manufacturers also recommend that mothers should only leave the bottle in the machine for about 1 hour.

3. Does expressed breast milk need to be reheated?

Experts recommend that the storage of breast milk at room temperature should not last more than 4 hours; hot weather is less than 1 hour.
After expressing breast milk, if the baby eats it right away, it does not need to be reheated. If the baby does not eat right away, after expressing milk, the mother should keep it in the refrigerator. When warming baby's milk, the mother should transfer to another bottle a sufficient amount of milk.

4. Is it okay to warm breast milk over and over again?

Is it okay to warm breast milk over and over again?
According to nutritionists, breast milk after expressing if left at room temperature can be used within 4 hours. But with breast milk that has been frozen and reheated, it should be used within 1 hour. With the remaining amount of warmed milk, the mother should not keep it and preserve it. Ideally, the mother should throw away, do not reheat for the baby to use next time, because at this time bacteria can multiply and cause disease for the baby, affecting the development process for the baby.
With frozen breast milk, the mother needs to put the milk under the refrigerator to defrost and then warm the milk. Absolutely do not feed the baby again after 1 hour of using milk, this is very easy to cause stomach pain, digestive problems, diarrhea.
Mothers should remember that breast milk is only warmed once after defrosting, should not be reheated to ensure nutrients, vitamins and antibodies are not converted or lost; as well as bad bacteria are not able to enter the milk.
Breast milk is the best source of nutrition for your baby. After defrosting, it should only be reheated once, absolutely not to be reheated to ensure a long-lasting source of nutritious breast milk for your baby.
For more nutritional knowledge and child care for each age, parents should regularly visit the website vimec.com and make an appointment with the leading doctors, pediatric and nutrition experts of the National General Hospital. Vinmec when needing advice on children's health.