Pooling Breastmilk
Have you ever had multiple bottles of pumped milk, but none were individually equal enough to actually feed your baby?
Maybe you have added in some “extra pump sessions” to create one full feeding for your baby, and they are starting out with pretty small quantities (normal!).
Guess what?! You can combine it! You can combine individual pump sessions from different times or days together, or pool all of your milk over a 24 hour+ period.
Pooling breastmilk is an easy and safe way to combine milk from different pump sessions over a day or two! It is also a great method if you want to mix different pump sessions to evenly distribute nutrients. For example, Teddy had some nights where he slept so well through the night that when I woke up extremely engorged. In some of these cases, (since my body was so used to him waking through the night) I would need to hand express or haakaa off some milk before nursing him. I saved that milk of course! The milk was more watery and blue, but my pump session later in the day (when teddy was at daycare) would be lower volume but higher in fat. Pooling, or mixing them, would evenly distribute those nutrients from both feeds. Hopefully you’re following!
METHODS
I usually just pool milk over 24 hours (enough to make his bottles for daycare the next day), but some mamas do a few days at a time. I think it comes down to what feels most comfortable for you. I’ll share some more info on this below.
I pool the milk throughout the day by keeping it in a pitcher in the fridge, or if I’m out I’ll store it in my ceres chill tumbler. Each time I pump, I add the freshly pumped milk to the pitcher and place it in the fridge (per CDC guidelines- you should chill freshly pumped milk first before adding to the pitcher of chilled milk). At the end of that day before bed, I disperse the mixed milk from the day’s pitcher into Teddy’s bottles for daycare tomorrow. Then I start fresh again the next day. This way I know that those bottles are all good in the fridge for 4 days, though, he typically uses them at daycare the next day.
Remember, when mixing milk from different days, you should go by the oldest date to determine storage rules. For example, if you pooled milk from Monday-Wednesday and made bottles with it: those bottles are good in the fridge until Friday (4 days from oldest milk collected).
Sometimes I pump into my pump bottles, then add it to a previous pump and store appropriately.
Sometimes I pump and pool the milk in a pitcher as I go through the day.
If pooling larger amounts of milk over a day plus, I’d make sure you have a container large enough to hold the milk and fit in your fridge. This could be a glass mason jar, tumbler, thermos, pitcher, etc. After Lou, I got this cheap mixing pitcher, and I absolutely love it!
(You can also visit my Amazon pumping storefront for other pumping needs!)
In the past, people brought up concerns that pooling milk could increase bacterial counts when adding freshly pumped milk to already chilled milk by “warming the already chilled milk”. This pooling milk article on Free to Feed does a great job explaining (with research) how this is not the case. It also runs through where this guideline came from and the science and research behind it. It found that the temperature fluctuations do not lead to increased bacteria count. Makes total sense considering breastmilk is filled with white blood cells and other antomicrobial properties! It’s very protective.
There was a study done (you can read that here) which found that “24-hour pooling of human milk reduces nutrient and caloric variability without increasing bacterial counts.” In other words, it evenly distributes nutrients and calories without any risk of bacteria growing.
The CDC is also fine with pooling milk, however, they recommend that you bring the milk to the same temperature before combining. So, if you pumped and wanted to add it to milk already in the fridge, they suggest you first chill the recently pumped milk before mixing it together with chilled milk. They show no research or evidence to back this recommendation, but it’s still there. I talk more about this in my “mixing milk” and “pooling milk” instagram highlights we linked below.
So if you feel more comfortable following the CDC guideline and chilling pumped milk before pooling it into a pitcher or container, then absolutely do that! Do whatever you feel the most comfortable with!
When I’m on the go, I usually pool milk at different in my Ceres Chill tumbler (Use code COOLKARRIE for 15% off!). I don’t have the means to chill before combining and I’m okay with that.
If you want to learn more about why I’m OK with this, you can watch my mix milk highlight.
You can also watch my pooling milk highlight.
The most important thing is that you make a decision based on what is best for YOU!
You’ve got this, Mamas!
Xoxo
Karrie
P.S. Here are all the links from this blog:
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