Can I Feed My Baby Cold Breast Milk?
It is not necessary to warm up breast milk before feeding it to your baby. To put it simply, it is completely okay to feed your baby cold breast milk or room temperature breast milk. If you want to warm it up, then seal the container before doing heating it up.
Warm Breast Milk If your baby is content with a cool cup of breast milk, you may want to give your expressed milk directly out of the refrigerator. Infant bodies are still developing, and babies cannot well regulate body temperature, so instead of giving cold milk right out of the refrigerator, you are better off giving them lukewarm, rather than cold, milk. There is no risk in feeding baby cold milk, so it is more a matter of personal preference as to whether to give your baby cold or hot milk. Children who are used to drinking cold milk usually do not have any problems being fed on the go, whereas heated bottles can be trickier.
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You may find your baby does not accept cold bottles of milk if he is used to being fed hot milk. Most babies, even though they are willing to drink a cold baby bottle, drink less milk than if it were warm milk. If your baby drinks as much cold milk as warm, there is likely no reason why his weight gains will be affected.
While many parents opt for warming babys milk, it actually might pose a greater risk for heating than letting your child drink it cold. A bottle of milk that is cold does nothing for your baby, and there are plenty of problems that can arise when trying to convince a child to drink it. Even though the convenience factor of giving cold milk is appealing, if your baby refuses to drink a bottle this way, it might not work. As your baby takes the bottle at first, you are likely to encounter milk on the face of your toddler as they realize that it is cold, followed by crying and refusing to drink any more.
| Can babies are feed with cold breast milk | Benefits |
| It is not necessary to warm up breast milk before feeding it to your baby | Breastfeeding can help protect babies against some short- and long-term illnesses and diseases |
| If you want to warm it up, then seal the container before doing heating it up | They have lower risk of asthma and obesity |
If the baby is refusing cold milk and refusing feeding, try running cold milk under warm water for one minute to remove any chill. To prevent the baby from rejecting body-temperature milk entirely, gradually move from the warm milk to the room temperature, then the cold milk. It is best to make gradual changes to prevent your baby from rejecting the milk on its temperature. To prevent your babys mouth from getting burned, you need to check the milk temperature prior to feeding.
You should discuss feeding baby cold milk with the childs doctor, then make the decision between cold milk and hot milk according to your childs medical condition and preferences. If your baby only prefers warm milk, you may want to use a bottle warmer, which works with either feeding via bottles or pumping your breastmilk (2).
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If your baby prefers hot milk, buy bottle warmers rather than using boiling water or the microwave to warm up. More important than heating the milk is using the correct mix of safe water and baby formula in making bottles, and keeping formula or breast milk appropriate for your baby. Even when using bottle warmers or another heat-based method for warming babys milk, it is important to be careful, as heating milk too much could damage immune-building components and other beneficial nutrients in breast milk. It is best to warm babys milk with a warm bath of water or with a bottle warmer, which provides even heating, as opposed to a microwave.
It is not wise to heat lukewarm formula in the microwave, as that kind of heating process creates hot spots in your milk which could burn your babys mouth. While it is not harmful to heat the milk too much, except if it hurts the babys mouth, a warmer milk with less heat is likely preferable. Feeding cool milk helps to remove the risk of milk heating too much, which is bad for baby because it can cause mouth foaming. Warm milk is better, because it is much more comforting, helps the baby sleep, and can help to lessen some of his symptoms.
Breastmilk can be either hot, to match more closely with your mothers natural body temperature when she comes out, or it can be given cold. While breastfeeding babies will receive their breast milk at their breasts body temperature, babies fed on formula or given breastmilk in bottles may drink the contents a little hotter, at room temperature, or even cold directly from the refrigerator. If you have a baby that will not drink breast milk, baby formula, or cows milk cool milk breast milk, baby formula, or cows milk cool milk (and this is most of the time, as most babies prefer their milk closer to body temperature), you can still try teaching him or her to like cool breast milk. You can simply pull breastmilk from the refrigerator and feed it to your baby, no harm done.
Expressing milk means that you squeeze milk from the breasts, so that you can store it and feed it to your baby later. Obviously, we are going to assume that you are feeding baby via bottles because the milk coming straight out of your breast is always the best temperature.
Before getting ahead of ourselves, however, it is important to pause for a moment to point out that you should never give your child cows milk, regardless of if it is hot or cold. Aside from missing the benefits for better sleep presumably provided by drinking hot milk, there is nothing that a baby would lose from drinking a cold bottle. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, babies can safely drink cold, hot, or room-temperature milk (1). Because babies are sensitive and are still building their immune systems, feeding them moderately cool or hot milk is best, or consult special health recommendations (3).
Of course, if you are wondering if it is better to give an expressed breastmilk to a baby, which has been left for one hour at room temperature and not refrigerated, or has been kept refrigerated for several days and then frozen, think about environmental or other factors. If your breast milk has fully thawed, but it still feels cold, place it back in the refrigerator and use within the next day, or toss it. This question may have shocked you, but frozen milk actually works well for relieving babys teething pain. Not only is it handy for anyone else who has to feed a baby, but cold milk may even provide some relief from teething discomfort, according to some.
Is cold breast milk OK for babies?
Cold formula or breastmilk is safe for babies to consume. You don’t need to be anxious about feeding your infant a bottle directly from the refrigerator or blending formula with cold water for healthy, full-term babies.
Why is my breast milk watery?
The remaining milk becomes more diluted the longer it is between feedings. This milk, which is described as “watery,” has more lactose and less fat than the milk that is kept in the milk-producing cells higher up in your breast.
Why can’t babies drink cold breast milk?
The concern is that if the milk is cold, it can be challenging to get the fat layer to recombine with it. You want the baby to grow that fat; it will keep her fuller for longer and help her healthily gain weight. Additionally, a newborn could like milk that is warmer than body temperature.