How long can you keep breastmilk in the refrigerator before transferring to the freezer? I read that if you know you won't be using the breastmilk in the next few days then you should freeze it right away. But sometimes I don't know if I will use it or not especially on the weekends. I like to keep at least a bottle or two of fresh bm in the fridge at all times so I can grab and go. So lets say I have milk in fridge for like 3-4 days, can I put in the freezer on the fourth day or is it too late and better to just use it?
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I wonder about this too but I've frozen a couple times.
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I will keep in the fridge for a couple of hours, more than 12 and I would feed that in a bottle and pump and put the fresh in the freezer.
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I try not to go longer than 5-7 days but I don't know if that's right or not. Little Miss Miss hasn't had any issues.
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I would probably use it instead of freezing it. If you do freeze it, just sniff it when you thaw it to make sure it's still good.
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I don't know the rule, but I have had it up to 5 days in the fridge before transferring it to the freezer. I am pumping and freezing right away now, but only because I want to start using some of my older pumped milk. We haven't had any problems with the frozen milk that we now have in rotation that likely sat in the fridge for a few days.
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I didn't know you can keep it that long in the fridge. I usually keep mine no more than 24 hours before transferring it to the freezer.
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Since I have excess lipase in my milk, I don't like to keep it any longer than 24 hours in the fridge before freezing it. But otherwise, I'm sure leaving it 3-4 days in the fridge before freezing is ok. I've heard it's good up to 7 days in the fridge.
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I have enough bottles so that I can collect about 3 days worth of pumping sessions and then just freeze it all at one time instead of doing it every day. Haven't had an issue so far. I always freeze myilk and send the oldest frozen stuff to daycare
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You're good for up to 7 days in the fridge before freezing according to kellymom.com :). I usually try to freeze between 5 - 6 days or so at the latest personally.
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I agree with @Ginger333 - you're good for about a week in the fridge. I usually know what I'm going to freeze, so most days it goes in the freezer the same day. But I have frozen milk that has been in the fridge for a few days (like the extra amounts I pump that aren't quite enough to freeze without first combining it with other milk) before I put them in the freezer.
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as long as it is still good to serve it to your LO from the fridge then its fine to freeze it.
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Thanks ladies! I wasn't sure if there was a downside waiting a few days to freezing milk vs. freezing right away. And there's so much conflicting info online...some resources say 3 days, 5days, 8 days in fridge. So confusing. But I guess when in doubt, do the sniff test!
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my milk starts smelling bad at 3 days. so i'd do a smell check before freezing your milk if its been in the fridge for a few days.
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My milk starts to go bad about day 3 - so i use or freeze refrigerated milk by 2 days.
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14 comments