Abuja – Mrs Beatrice Eluaka, Technical Director, Strengthening Partnerships Results and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING), says breast milk can be stored or preserved in a refrigerator under a covered container for a maximum period of 24 hours.
Eluaka said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
However, she advised mothers to discard the remnants after the recommended hours to prevent contamination.
The expert warned that continuous usage of the preserved milk after the recommended hour could endanger the life of the child.
She explained that within the said hours when the baby is in need you take some quantity out of the preserved milk and placed it under a room temperature to avoid it been too cold for the baby.
Eluaka flayed the continuous feeding of babies with breast milk stored in refrigerators for days and weeks, among others, out of ignorance, describing such practice as unhygienic and improper.
Besides, the nutritionist advised mothers against adding the left over after feeding the baby with the main one in the refrigerator or using it to feed the baby at a later hour.
According to her, such practices could contaminate the entire preserved milk in the refrigerator thereby paving grave danger to the health of the child.
“Breast milk can be stored in the refrigerator for 24 hours after the mother expressed the milk should be kept in a container that has a cover.
“When the baby needs it you take part and live out under room temperature in order for it not to be too cold for the baby.
“After 24 hours if there is a remnant that the child has not finished discard it, never you give it to the child at a later hour or add it to the main one in the refrigerator,’’ Eluaka counselled.
Similarly, the nutritionist said that expressed breast milk could be stored under a room temperature for a maximum period of eight hours.
According to her, the ideal method is to store the milk in a closed container and placed inside a bowl of water.
She noted that such measure would prevent crawling ants or other agents from accessing the milk container.
The expert, however, said that abiding by the recommended preservative measures would go a long way in according the child a healthy living and enhance standard of living for such family.
“We recommend that container of breast milk stored under room temperature should be dropped in a bowl of ordinary water because breast milk is very sweet; it has sugar and anything that has sugar attract ants.
“So before ants could get to the cup containing the milk they get drown in the bowl of water which is simply the main reason of placing the cup in the bowl,’’ she explained. (NAN)
Nutritionist advises mothers on preservation of breast milk
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