Here’s a question I received the other day from a new mum who is keen on giving her new baby the best start in life -by giving her breastmilk.
“I am moving houses over the weekend and I have stored breastmilk in the freezer component of my fridge, kept in milkbags. I have been expressing this milk over the the last one month. How should I transport the milkbags, or where should I keep the frozen milk so that it does not thaw?”
I then forwarded her question to lactation manager and breastfeeding counselor Josie M. Karoki of Huny Suckle, who offered the following response:
“Invest in a cooler box, which you can find in most leading supermarkets in various sizes. Then buy some ice, readily available in most leading supermarkets.
Keep the ice in the freezer with the milk… if there is space until the day of the move. If there isn’t space, for instance if one doesn’t have a separate chest freezer at home, then the ice can be purchased on the day of the move, placed in the cooler box and the frozen milk packets added to the box.
The key is to ensure that the frozen milk is always in contact with the ice.
Another advantage of always having a cooler box at hand is that during lengthy power cuts, a mum has an alternative available. She can either always have ice in her freezer or simply go out and buy some in order to prevent loss of expressed breastmilk to power failure.
If a cooler box is too expensive for now, a clean bucket with a lid can also work. However, because of the lack of insulation -which a cooler box provides, it means that the ice will melt faster. In this case, the milk will need to be transferred back into the freezer as soon as possible, as soon as the temperatures in the freezer are low enough after re-connection to prevent further thawing of the milk.”
Hope this information helps you too as it has me.
image courtesy: let’s talk breastfeeding, Kenya
