In today’s society, it can be difficult for a mom to find the time to breast feed her child. Or it may simply be inconvenient because of being out in public. In these circumstance, many women choose to use expressed breast milk. Expressing is the act of mechanically squeezing milk from the breast and storing it in a bottle. The expressing is normally done using a pump. Expressed milk also comes in handy if the mom cannot be around and has to leave her baby in the care of a baby sitter, nanny, or her husband.
Expressed milk degrades quite slowly and can remain in good shape a while if stored right. For storage, you can find plastic bottles and bags made specifically for holding and storing expressed milk. If you want to extend milk, you can store it in the freezer or refrigerator. This will lengthen it’s shelf life. It is true that expressed milk stored in the freezer will lose some of it’s nutrients, antibodies, and enzymes, much the same as any other food. But even so, unless you are sick, it will most likely still be healthier for your child than any formula that you purchase from the store.
To test if expressed milk is good, simply smell it. As long as it doesn’t smell bad, it’s probably still good. You should be able to store expressed milk at room temperature for up to six or eight hours with no ill effects from it.
There are times when babies that have been used to breast feeding will have trouble adjusting to learning to feed from a baby bottle. Most likely this is due to the fact that different oral motions are necessary to suck milk from a bottle than from a breast. As a result the baby has to learn new eating habits, which most infants are reluctant to do after about 4 weeks. Now, nearly all babies will be bottle fed at some time or other. So to avoid or lessen problems later, it’s probably best to at least introduce a child to a bottle a few times in the first 4 weeks or so. This way it’s not a foreign experience to her when you try to get her to suckle from a bottle at a later time.
You have a couple of size choices when buying a baby bottle in which to store milk. A four oz. size or the eight oz. size. At some point, you’ll probably end of using each, so a good idea to to purchase a couple of bottles of each size. In addition, you have the choice of buying permanent bottles or disposable bottles. One of the most important features to look for in a baby bottle is one with anti-gas properties. Anti-gas features can do a lot towards stopping your baby from sucking in air with her milk which can cause cramps and other discomforts.
Normally, when breastfeeding her child, the woman should sit in a near upright position, leaning slightly backwards. This decreases the chance of the baby swallowing air. It’s also a very comfortable position for the woman, enabling her to hold the child firmly while she wraps the baby around her.
