expressing milk

heather38

quick question,
i am off to the hairdressers later and have a BF baby, i will feed her before i go out but want to leave some milk incase she gets hungry and my husband can feed her.
i have never expressed before and my pump goes straight into a bottle. is it ok just to put a teat on it straight from the fridge or do i need to decant the milk into a new sterilised bottle when she needs feeding?

bambam_2

I'm sure the answer will be that you should decant into sterilised bottle but I certainly never used to (your breast isn't exactly sterile - is it?). I mixed part time work with all 3 of mine from when they were just weeks old so I did the 'daisy the cow' breast pump thing a lot.

Mine were never sick until they were toddlers and mixing with other kids so it did no harm.

super41

Surely you should be ok if you've expressed into a sterile bottle? I also have BF baby. I feed him before I go out and can then leave him with my husband for about 3 hours no problem. He has never really kicked off when left with his Dad, as he knows he won't get fed! I've never bothered with leaving a bottle. So you may be able to get away with leaving baby.

heather38

she prob will be ok but husband tends to panic if she starts crying and can't calm her down, bless him. i had planned a long relaxing bubble bath last night fed the baby before i got in 10 min later she started crying and he couldn't get her to stop so i had to get out and calm her down. she had wind and couldn't get it to go down and fill her nappy :rolleyes:
i don't want to leave the hairdressers with half cut hair!!:eek:

Lillibet_2

I used to just shove a teat & cap onto the bottle.

HTH;)

mum_2_1_boy

Hello, Presuming that the bottle you are pumping into was sterilised beforehand, it will be fine to just put a teat straight on it. That is what I did with both my babies.

HTH

Nicki

mum_2_1_boy wrote:

Hello, Presuming that the bottle you are pumping into was sterilised beforehand, it will be fine to just put a teat straight on it. That is what I did with both my babies.

HTH

I agree, and this is what I did with my two with no ill effects.

Interesting though, a friend of mine who is a midwife, was advised by her paediatrician when she was living in the states, that there was no advantage to providing a baby with expressed milk which was more than 2 hours out of the breast. Apparently, the antibodies in breast milk dissipate after this time (irrespective of any freezing or refrigerating) in much the same way that the vitamins in vegetables diminish over time. He therefore advised her that if she was leaving baby for more than an hour she's be better off giving formula than old expressed milk. I have no idea whether this is a medically sound opinion or not, and I only learned of it after my two were off the breast, but it may be worth further research by any mums still bf.

Raksha

It's been a long time since I did baby stuff, but I do remember a freshly worn t shirt being left with hubby when he had the wee ones had a calming effect on them.

Not sure about the antibodies thing either - babies are fed breastmilk for more reasons than simply giving antibodies, and most antibodies are in colostrum, which is different to every day breastmilk. Besides, breastmilk and formula are supposed to taste different - surely it's best to keep things as much 'the same' for the baby as possible - having to drink from a bottle and teat is going to be a big enough challenge.



HTH

alwaysonthego_2

Lillibet wrote:

I used to just shove a teat & cap onto the bottle.

HTH;)

this is what I have done for both my children

inkie

I am a midwife:

make sure that the breast pump and the reservoir that you are pumping into are all sterilised
you can then either cap it off - for sterilised teat to be added to later, or put the locking cap and teat on and then cap it off, ready to go.

Thats what I did - you will be fine.

heather38

thanks guys took her with me in the end the girls in the salon wanted a look, and i wanted to go bargain shopping in boots, but at least i know for when the time comes