How Long is Your Breast Milk Good For?

Many new mothers, or even second time mothers, or third or so on, are a little confused about how long they really can keep their breast milk in the refrigerator with it still being good, aka not spoiled, retaining all of it’s nutritional value with fresh vitamins, minerals and nutrients, and not beginning to degrade (rot) or grow any sort of potentially harmful bacteria.  Many think that breast milk can be refrigerated for up to 5-8 days in the fridge without going bad, but they still prefer to keep it in the fridge for only two to three days at the most, to give their babies the freshest and most nutrient dense milk possible.

Of course, there is also the option of freezing the breast milk, and many mothers do that as well.  The biggest concern, and the reasons that most guidelines exist is not for the nutritional value being compromised if the breast milk sits around for too long before being used, being exposed to the air which naturally degrades any food object, but mostly it focused on the harm that bacterial growth might do to an infant if it grew on the milk, and so the guidelines were put in place.

However, new studies, based on the impact of time in the fridge storage on the nutritional value of the breast milk is now available. And what’s the verdict on how long you can store your breast milk in at least a below 40 degree refrigeration device without it losing any of its nutritional punch for your little bundle of joy?  The verdicts is about 4 days.

The final verdict on the composition of the milk being held intact was a period of 4 days, which is 96 hours. If the milk is in the fridge longer than that, it may start to lose some of the beneficial vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and potentially the antibodies that are passed to the child, so the recommendation if you want to maintain that maximum freshness and wholesome value of your breast milk, then try to use it within 4 days of pumping it.  This way, you can ensure that your child is getting the best nutritional benefits from your milk for their continued brain and organ development.

Heck, you could have a baby genius on our hands if you keep feeding them this super baby stuff