3 Ways to Thaw Breast Milk

When you start feeding your baby frozen breast milk, it can be a little more complicated than feeding fresh milk. You want to make sure the way you’re thawing your breast milk is safe and effective. I suppose, in an ideal world, we would just feed fresh breast milk and not have to worry about thawing it. But lets face it, that’s just not reality. There are many times when it’s necessary to use frozen breast milk to feed your baby, and you need to know how to thaw it properly! I remember when I first started using frozen milk for my son I was honestly kind of overwhelmed. I wanted to make sure I was doing it right and wasn’t going to harm my baby or waste my milk. Let me help you avoid this by describing a few ways you can do that!

The Fridge Method

This first method involves taking your frozen milk from the freezer and putting it in the fridge to thaw slowly. Depending on how much milk you’re trying to thaw, it may take longer to thaw completely. Most people who do this method take the milk they want to thaw out of the freezer the night before in order to give it enough time to be thawed completely by morning. You can thaw as much or as little milk as you want at a time with this method.

I like to say that this method is probably the most “fool proof” option for thawing breast milk because you just put it in the fridge and let it do its thing. You also don’t have to worry about forgetting about the milk on accident because you have 24 hours to use the milk from the time it is completely thawed, not the time you put it in the fridge!

The obvious downside to this method is time and the need for preparation. This method isn’t the fastest way to thaw milk and definitely won’t work if you need to thaw milk quickly. It also requires that you remember to take your milk out of the freezer ahead of time in order for it to be thawed when you need it.

The Warm Water Method

This method involves taking your frozen milk and placing it in the bowl of warm (not hot) water in order for it to thaw. Again, depending on how much milk you’re trying to thaw, this method may be faster or a bit slower. If you’re trying to thaw around 4 or 5 ounces at a time, it will probably take longer than if you’re trying to thaw 3 ounces or less.

One thing you want to keep in mind with this method is that once you introduce heat to breast milk, it’s best to use it within 2 hours of being completely thawed. So, this method is best utilized when you know you’re for sure going to use the milk within 2 hours. The other great thing about this method is that it speeds up the thawing process which means you can use this when you need breast milk quickly. It doesn’t take much preparation and it’s simple.

The Counter Top Method

This last method is similar to the warm water method, but instead utilizes the ability of placing your frozen breast milk on the counter at room temperature to thaw it. This method is faster than the fridge method, but usually slower than the warm water method depending on how much breast milk you’re trying to thaw. I like utilizing this method as a sort of “pre-thaw” before I put my frozen milk in the fridge because it kind of speeds up the process. I’ll leave a bag on the counter for about 1 hour and then toss it in my fridge to slowly thaw the rest of the way overnight.

While this method doesn’t use heat, it can lead to milk waste if you leave the milk on the counter for too long. Granted, you would have to forget about it for quite some time for you to actually waste the milk. Remember, breast milk is good at room temperature for 4 hours (according to the CDC), so you have some wiggle room. But, just something to keep in mind if you use this method. Since you’re not using heat to thaw your milk with this method, you don’t have to use the milk within 2 hours, but keep in mind the 4 hours at room temperature advisement.

Find what works for you!

At the end of the day, you can choose what method works for you and your needs. As you continue you on your breastfeeding journey and try different methods, you’ll discover what works best. I personally use a mixture of all of these methods depending on my needs for the day.

I’m going to include a link from the CDC about breast milk storage and preparation for you to refer to.

CDC Storage and Preparation of Breast Milk

I also have a breast milk storage and handling guide in my Etsy shop that summarizes the CDC recommendations if you’re interested!

Thanks for reading! Connect with me on Instagram and TikTok @janellelynnfoster for more information and education on breastfeeding, postpartum, and newborns!