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Mother's Milk

Consumption of Mother's Milk

Infants usually consume about 0.5 kg/day of mother's milk for the first month and gradually grow to roughly 0.8 kg/day in the fourth month4.

Storing Mother's Milk

At room temperature (~ 25°C), up to 4 hours12. CDC provides a nice info-graphic for storing breast milk3.
storing fresh storing used

Drugs and Lactation Database

At some point, the question of what may appear in the milk may arise. The Drugs and Lactation Database is a good resource to check if a substance or drug can appear in mother's milk.

Garlic and Milk

We eat a dinner with garlic and we started to ask the question if garlic odor can be transferred to the milk.

The answer is yes, see the following database entry:

Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed®) [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; 2006-. Garlic. [Updated 2025 Jan 15]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK501782/

  1. CDC. Breast Milk Storage and Preparation. Breastfeeding. 2024.https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/breast-milk-preparation-and-storage/handling-breastmilk.html#:~:text=Freshly%20expressed%20or%20pumped%20milk,to%2012%20months%20is%20acceptable. (accessed 9 May2025). ↩

  2. Expressing and storing breast milk. nhs.uk. https://www.nhs.uk/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/breastfeeding/expressing-breast-milk/ (accessed 9 May2025). ↩

  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Storage, Handling, and Preparation of Breast Milk in Early Care and Education (ECE) Programs. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/strategies/early-care-education/pdf/Breastmilk-ECE-082022-508.pdf (accessed 9 May2025). ↩

  4. Costa THM da, Haisma H, Wells JCK, Mander AP, Whitehead RG, Bluck LJC. How much human milk do infants consume? Data from 12 countries using a standardized stable isotope methodology. The journal of nutrition 2010; 140: 2227–2232. ↩

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