Re: question about safety of thawing breastmilk in refrigerator (previously frozen) when it can be left out fresh several hours. My understanding is that the bacticidal elements in human milk become less effective after refrigration or freezing. Thus, a quick thaw technique is better prior to use in that sufficient time does not elapse to enable bacteria to grow and proliferate. Hope this helps. PS Refrigration also causes less degradation than freezing, so best approach is as folows: fresh direct from breast fresh raw in other container refrigerated frozen donated milk from another mother of same species artificial baby milk milk from mother of another species %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities %% %% brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." %% %% definition of a lactation consulting service. %% %% Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC - [log in to unmask] %% %% Homewood, Illinois USA %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%