Baby boy has made his appearance and we couldn’t feel luckier to have such a sweet boy. It’s hard not to look at him 24/7 and be amazed by how much he’s learning and growing each day. Before his arrival, I went deep into the research hole about every aspect that could be a part of his life. One of those key things was breastfeeding and pumping.

I have 2 months of maternity leave, after which Cade will be attending daycare and need pumped bottles. So to get in the habit of pumping and proper breast milk storage, I started looking for succinct resources I could tape to the fridge for quick reference. The only problem was that there weren’t clear, printable (and let’s be honest, nice looking) breast milk storage guidelines all in one place. So I made this one and now we don’t have to run to Google each time we want to store or pull out a bottle!

Printable Breast Milk Storage Guidelines

Note: This is based on the 2021 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations. Some information might change by the time you need this information. Most storage times and temperatures have been consistent for years- the one to note is that in Sept. 2021, the AAP updated their recommendation to allow for mixing different temperatures of breast milk together as long as they were pumped within the same 24 hour period to spread out the nutrient variety that is present in milk pumped at different times of the day. Previously it was recommended to chill fresh breast milk before mixing it with previously cooled milk.

I hope this helps and good luck to all other pumping moms out there! I’ve linked a few of my pumping favorites below as a first time mom. I want to know- what helped you the most during your pumping journey?