What Is the Easiest Way to Thaw Frozen Breastmilk?

A.,

I always take out the milk the night before to thaw in the fridge. In the morning the milk is the consistency of a milk shake usually. I then poor the milk in the bottle and my mother in law heats it up in a container with hot water till it is at a good temp. If the milk has too much ice in it to poor in the bottle then I first put it in a container of warm water until it is broken up enough to go into the bottle. (I store my milk in Gerber breastmilk bags). Hope this helps.

If I knew how much I needed I thawed it in the fridge by just taking it from the freezer and putting it in the fridge until needed.

How are you storing it? I used bags and what worked best for us is to put it in a bowl or cup and just run the hot water over it before I used it. It would thaw it and heat it up at the same time.

I have found that the best way to thaw, or warm, breast milk is to use on of those tall (and wide enough) plastic cups. Fill the cup with hot water for 4 or 5 minutes. That way the bag will not fall and leak in the water. I try to keep the very top of the bag out of the water. A small pitcher will also work good.

I've always just run the bag under warm water. It takes about 3-4 minutes till it's thawed, and then you can keep it under longer for warmer milk. I found that putting it into a bowl of warm water just cools off the water quickly but doesn't thaw the milk.

I EP'ed for 4 months, so there was lots of thawing going on at our house! Before going to bed, I would pull from the freezer however many bags I needed to make the next day's bottles and set them upright in a ZIPlock bag in the fridge. I put them in a ZIPlock in case the bags happened to leak (did not happen often, but I didn't want to lose any of the milk nor did I want to make a big mess in my refrigerator.

Most of the time the milk was thawed, but if I needed one and it was a little slushy I would sit it in a bowl of warm water to finish the thawing, then gently massage the bag with my fingers to mix the separated layers.

A.:

a) it does not have to be consumed within 24 hours and it can be re refrigerated if your son only takes some and not all that is in the bottle.

b) thaw in the refridge or under running water.

P., RLC, IBCLC
Breastfeeding and Parenting Solutions

my hubby thawed as he needed it, just put the bag/bottle of frozen milk in a bowl in the sink, turn the water on hot go change the baby and when you get back it's ready.
C.

kudos to you for pumping. I pumped for 6 mos with my son and it was hard work! The easiest way was to put it in a pan of cold water and not heat it. It takes a about 5n hours or so, but it will be just fine. Also, you could put it in a pan of warm water (the baggie) and slowly heat only as much as you need.

I would place the bag or bottle in a bowl with some warm water and let it defrost in there. That seemed to be the easiest way.
Take care,
T.