If you find yourself a bit overwhelmed by what you should and shouldn’t do when it comes to cleaning your pump, collecting your milk and then HOW to use it properly - you’re not alone. The CDC and the AAP differ recently in what they think is acceptable for combining milk - CDC says milk needs to be the same temp (so combining refrigerated milk is OK, but don’t combine cold milk and freshly pumped) but the AAP made us all CHEER recently when they came out and advised it safe to combine your freshly pumped milk with the milk you’ve refrigerated from your most recent pump and freeze or use them together….and then cry a bit when they quickly came back and reverted to the original stance - DON’T combine milks of varying temperatures.

The following images show the basics on how to properly keep your pump parts clean (soap and water), store human milk and use it once you remove it from either the fridge or freezer.

Find the milk storage working guidelines from the CDC here and the AAP’s frequently asked questions about guidelines here.

One of my favorite resources that explains the variations of milk storage guidelines is here. Nancy explains the ideal vs. okay storage guidelines that you might find very helpful when navigating a question of what is proper storage for you and your infant.