How To Remove Air From Breast Milk Storage Bags?

Feeding your infant is a wonderful journey. You spend time storing, preparing, freezing, and thawing the breast milk. Then, your child cries of badly wanting to get that golden liquid inside his or her tummy. Welcome to motherhood!

While you were doing all these things, have you noticed the air bubbles in the frozen breast milk? You may be curious if it’s alright to have them inside your breast milk storage bags. This is what we’re talking about today.

Every loving mother wants the best for their little bundle of joy. They want to provide them with as many nutrients as they can. Mothers decide whether to go for formula or breastfeeding.

Things are more challenging when you choose to breastfeed your child. There are things you need to keep an eye on when it comes to storing and freezing the milk. Don’t worry because we’re here to guide you.

There’s a tendency that fresh breast milk separates. It appears odd or frothy which is quite questionable. You might wonder if it’s spoiled or not.

Below is a breast milk color chart you may check on.

Moreover, you will learn if it’s safe to have air bubbles inside your breast milk storage bag, what are the reasons why it is (or not) safe, how to avoid air bubbles, and the steps in freezing your milk. We’ve come up with a recommended short list of tools to use.

This is open to all especially to young mothers who have zero knowledge in storing breast milk or formula. It’s time to help you with your breastfeeding journey to be healthy, safe, and convenient.

Breast Milk Storage Bag Air Bubbles: Safe Or Not

Is it safe to have air bubbles in frozen breast milk? The answer is “no”. According to research, it must be avoided in frozen breast milk. The air inside the breast milk storage bag causes a freezer burn on the milk.

After you defrost it, you’re going to feed it to your child. It causes stomach aches in the little one. You don’t want to see your baby suffer troubles like this. The baby will have gassiness and colic.

This is the main reason why you have to minimize the amount of air inside. It would be better if you really can eliminate the bubbles before it goes into your fridge. Be careful in storing your breast milk in the storage bag.

Whether you’re storing the milk for home consumption or for a weekend getaway, it’s important that you and your partner know these facts about air bubbles inside breast milk storage bags. These are easy to remember and you can share them with your family or friends.

Keep on reading to know more details about why one must avoid air bubbles in the freezer stash. We also highlighted the steps to how you can prevent this situation.

Why It’s Not Okay To Have Air Bubbles In Frozen Breast Milk

Upon storing your breastmilk, you will notice tiny air bubbles. It’s normal that they appear but you should completely avoid having them. Why do you avoid them?

It leads to a freezer burn on milk. You might not experience this if you store the milk for just a short period of time. Freezer burn on milk might not be present in milk stored in just a matter of weeks.

Once the milk is in the freezer for six months (per CDC guidelines), you are exposing your milk to freezer burn. Thus, you are making your baby at risk too.

If you feed your child with defrosted breast milk from a storage bag with air bubbles, your child can suck in too much air. It gets trapped in the baby’s digestive tract. Then, you will be problematic because the baby will have gassiness, fussiness, and too much pain.

Kids might have dreadful colic. This is a worse case of kids taking in breast milk with air bubbles. Their tummies hurt worse.

It’s important to take the right steps after you read all of these things. It will help you be more careful in preparing and storing your child’s breast milk.

How To Prevent Frozen Breast Milk From Having Air Bubbles

Since breast milk storage bags are the top choice for storing breast milk in the freezer, you better have some in stock now. These storage bags allow more storage space in the freezer because of how small they are.

Bacteria and other contaminations are easily avoided. Breast milk storage bags are explicitly made for bacteria-free storage like breast milk. According to some, they are highly recommended because you can easily monitor that there is no bubble inside the bag before freezing.

It brings peace of mind to the moms who are very much concerned about their baby’s safety. It lights up the feeling of knowing your kid is away from tummy troubles caused by air consumption from frozen breast milk.

Remember that there are moms who prefer pumping into storage containers before they transfer to the storage bags. For them, they can avoid accidental spills with this process. Below are the simple processes for keeping air bubbles away from your breast milk storage bags.

Supplies Needed

Breast Milk Storage Bags – Use the ones that can be frozen flat to save space in your freezer. Aside from this, there are many other features breast milk storage bags have like pour spout design, leaking protection, and safe to freeze.

Freeze Flat – This is a gadget that makes sure your breast lies flat in the freezer. Thus, it helps you to prevent air bubbles from appearing.

Steps In Freezing Breast Milk

1. Pump your storage container – Your breast pump goes with a few containers before it goes to the breast milk bag. Just be sure to boil your milk for sanitation.

2. Use a flange in pouring breast milk into the storage bag – This helps you pour your easier. It’s better than pouring your milk directly into the bag. It helps you avoid spilling or leaking during transfer especially since milk expands when frozen. This can lead your breast milk bag to tear.

3. Squeeze your fingers tightly when moving the storage bag – Move the bag upward as you squeeze your fingers tightly around it. Your fingers resemble a pair of scissors that pull out the air outside of the breast milk bag.

Continue pulling out the air on one side of the bag. Then, partially zip it. If the other side is air-free, you may zip the bag halfway. This will help you tighten the breast milk bag and keep the air from coming in.

4. Squeeze the other half of the storage bag – Using the same technique with your fingers, start on the other side. Then, squeeze the air out of the top. Just be careful not to let go of the whole bag.

5. Zip it closed – Don’t zip it once or twice, but five times. This is to ensure that the storage bag is locked in place. They are notorious for leaks because moms forget to ensure to zip the bag and keep it entirely sealed.

It’s unfortunate of you to lose milk. It’s worse if your milk is contaminated during the whole process.

6. Place the breast milk bag flat on the freezer – Make sure to place it on a flat surface. Maybe you feel so tired and forget that you placed it on top of an ice cream container. There are many organizer options available online.

If you want to Do It Yourself (DIY), you can opt in using a 12-pack soda carton to place your breast milk storage bags into. You can place them upright throughout the storage. It keeps your fridge and storage bags as organized as possible.

Additional Safety Tips

This is a video for a step-by-step process of how to get rid of air bubbles in a breast milk storage bag.

Follow CDC guidelines in the whole process of freezing your breast milk especially if you’re still a new parent. Here are safety tips you should never forget.

• Never freeze a thawed milk again
• It only takes 24 hours to consume once milk is thawed
• Although it’s alright to store fresh breast milk inside the freezer for 12 months, it is best for your baby to consume it within 6 months

Conclusion

Always remember that your goal is to remove the air from breast milk storage bags. There are laid reasons such as the further pain caused to your baby. It’s also emphasized in this article that leaks contaminate breast milk which is dangerous to your baby’s stomach and health.

Aside from the fact that air bubbles are annoying inside the breast milk storage bags, they also cause freezer burn in your breast milk. Once thawed and served to your baby, it will cause fussiness and gassiness in your baby.

Air bubbles are really avoidable. Just follow the steps mentioned above to keep your babies safe. Keep safe in breastfeeding and breast milk storage journey using breast milk storage bags and other necessary tools highlighted in this whole article.