Breastmilk Storage Guidelines

When you first start handling breastmilk it can feel really overwhelming. Especially when you experience a new scenario for the first time. Our graphic on Breastmilk Storage Guidelines tries to explain every possible scenario and how to handle it!

Freshly Expressed Breastmilk:

Freshly Expressed Breastmilk at Room Temperature:

When you have breastmilk that you’ve pumped and it’s out on the counter, you generally have from four to six hours until it needs to get into the fridge, or be tossed.

Freshly Expressed Breastmilk in the Fridge:

If you expressed your breastmilk and put it in the fridge, it’s typically good for around 4 days. At that point it needs to be frozen, used or tossed.

Freshly Expressed Breastmilk in a Cooler:

If you are pumping at work and you put your breastmilk into a cooler and leave it in the car overnight…you’re likely in luck! It’s good for up to 24 hours.

Freshly Expressed Breastmilk in a Freezer:

If you put your milk into the freezer it is good between 6 and 12 months. Milk that is “bricked” and in the back of a deep freezer or a freezer that isn’t opened often can be good for up to 12 months. Milk that is out in the open on a regular freezer that is opened frequently might only be good for 6.

Breastmilk That Has Been Thawed From Frozen:

Breastmilk That Has Been Thawed From Frozen to room temperature:

If you have frozen your milk, and then warmed up your milk. It is only good for 2 hours at room temperature. Jury is out on if you can put it back in the fridge immediately and warm it up again later, we would ask you to ask your pediatrician or trust your gut.

Breastmilk That Has Been Thawed From Frozen in the fridge:

If your breastmilk was frozen and is thawed in the fridge, you have 24 hours to use or toss the milk. This means 24 hours from when it became liquid.

Breastmilk That Has Been Thawed From Frozen in the freezer:

This is a no. Once milk has been frozen, and thawed, it should not be frozen again. HOWEVER – The rule of thumb is that if your milk still has some frozen crystals…that it can be refrozen. For example: If your power goes out, and your milk bags are half thawed…you can safely let them refreeze.

Breastmilk Used For a Feeding:

In the graphic you can see that in all scenarios breastmilk that has been fed to baby needs to be tossed after the feeding. This is because once the baby begins drinking from the bottle, bacteria from the baby’s mouth is introduced and the clock starts ticking on when the milk begins to go bad.

If you aren’t sure if your baby is hungry for a full feeding- cut the feeding into two bottles! That way all of the milk isn’t spoiled from one failed feeding.

Milk Math:

Parents often ask why there is a spectrum of time that milk is good. This is because if you leave your milk out for 5 hours before you put it in the fridge it may go bad faster than if it was put in the fridge right away. Same as if you freeze your milk after 3 days it may not last as long as milk that was frozen fresh.

When in Doubt on Breastmilk Storage Guidelines:

Taste it yourself. Or at least smell it. Milk that is off…is OFF. Generally if your baby happily drinks your milk then it’s still good to drink! When in doubt- make it into a milk bath to soothe your baby’s skin.

Still wanting to learn more?

We have an entire VIDEO on breastmilk storage guidelines. You can purchase it here as part of our Baby Care Classes series.