Our Top 5 Tips to Keep your Breast Milk Safe in a Power Outage!
With Hurricane Dorian headed our direction and being in Hurricane Season we’ve been getting some questions on how to keep frozen breast milk safe in the event of a power outage. We understand that power outages during a storm are stressful and even more so when you are trying to save your stash. Today we are sharing our top 5 tips to help you and your family be a little more prepared in case you experience an outage.
Consider purchasing a generator. Investing in a generator can bring you and your family piece of mind knowing that you can keep your refrigerator/freezer running without needing ice. Most generators will run off of gas so be sure to stock up on extra gas before the storm hits.
Dry Ice is another great way to keep your milk frozen. You can generally find dry ice and ice chests at most grocery stores. Dry ice does requires special care so be sure to read up on how to properly handle and store your dry ice. *Try to purchase the dry ice as close to the storm as possible.
Keep your freezer door closed! If you do not have an immediate reason to open your freezer door then keeping it closed going to be extremely helpful. A full freezer typically can keep it’s temperature for almost two days if you keep the door closed. Although this isn’t a long-term solution it may buy you enough time to figure out your next move.
Freeze refrigerated items. Having a full freezer will help keep your milk frozen for longer! If you don’t have items that can be frozen another great option is taking a few bottles, jugs or containers and filling them with water and then freezing them.
Try contacting your local hospitals ahead of the storm. Some hospitals have emergency storage available and may be able to store your milk. While not every hospital has this option it is worth calling and see if this option is available to you in the event you need it.
If you are pumping and don’t have a generator we are sharing a few tips below!
Buy a car adapter or extra battery pack for your pump.
Have a back up manual pump
Hand expressing
If you have neighbors who have generators ask them before the storm if you can store your breast milk in their freezer in the event you lose power.
*** Please remember that you must used any thawed milk within 24-48 hours. Do not refreeze milk that has been thawed.
Sometimes power outages happen without warning. It is best to have a plan and a back up plan in place in case of an unexpected power outage.
Have a tip that we missed? Please share it below!