I have seen this in the movie Meet The Fockers wherein the grandfather feeds the toddler with a milk that was extracted from the mother's breast. Do you think it is ok to preserve the breast milk and then feed it to the baby when the mother is not around? I'm not convinced about this idea so I would like to know the opinions of experienced mothers.

Lots of mothers pump their milk for use at a later time. I'm not sure how long it can be kept, but I'd imagine a couple hours is probably pretty safe. Working moms especially would need to pump enough for the baby to eat while they worked an average eight hour day...

I'm not certain how long breast milk lasts but my friend used to pump and store in the fridge. Then you just warm like you would with formula. I've even heard that breast milk can be frozen but I'm not positive about that one.

I've been reading on this because one day, with two at the breast, the only way I'll get out will be to pump.

This is my favorite site. It says the milk is good for up to 10 hours on the counter and a week in the fridge. It can be frozen too.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html

Thanks for that url; it has a lot of great information there. I will be needing all the details in a few months. I thought it could be frozen, now I know for sure. I want to breastfeed but wasn't positive that I'd be able to when I go back to work so this is very useful to me.

The only thing to consider is that some of the immune factors may not be as 'strong' as before freezing. Other than that, frozen, thawed and reheated breast milk is still way superior to formula as it has the perfect balance of nutrients still. It can be kept for a very long time in the freezer.

Thank you a lot for your replies, its really a big help in our decision to pump out my wife's breast milk for our baby. The link was also very helpful on how to store and reheat the harvested breast milk. ;) Thanks boyohboy!

I use to extract my milk when I went back to work and have it refridgerated and pass it on to my baby's care giver to be used the next day. I normally do a day at a time.

Extract-such a strange term to apply to such a wonderful process.

I do not pump my milk, but not because I do not want to. I have too much lipase in it, so it spoils quickly-the enzyme digests the fat and it tastes bad.

But that's good for me because I get her all to myself ;)

I have done it in the past and it works just great. It offers a little freedom, so I am able to get other things done like taking a nap when the whole baby process has taken its toll on me.

I'd never thought of freezing the milk, but it would be useful if you've got plenty and want to breastfeed longer than may be done easily with going back to work. I never realized it could keep so long as I never managed to keep it around more than a day or two, lol.