Freezing Breastmilk - New York,NY

hmmm...how long was it in the deep freezer? 6 months is maximum. and regular freezer 3 months is maximum.

i have frozedn my milk in Lansinoh bags. I only use those!

and to thaw i let it sit in a mug of hot water or i put in fridge...

hope you pump so much more that you forget about those bags!! i also get so upset if i lose 1 bottle worth! i am down to my last 10 bags....and still bfeeding a bit each day (he's 14 months). its gonna end soon....!

Hi Vicki:

Please contact your local La Leche League leader for specific advice regarding this...

Breastmilk itself is liquid, living tissue--full of all of those wonderful factors that make it the "magic elixer." The milk itself also contains digestive enzymes that in a sense help to pre-digest or aid in the digestive process (lactase to digest lactose, lipase to digest the fats).

Some women have high levels of lipase in their milk. When frozen/defrosted, the milk may have a soapy smell to it, and may seem unpalatable to you. It is not "bad", just a little pre-digested. Gently swirl the milk to mix it and see if the baby will take it (always handle milk like a fine wine... swirl, don't shake--shaking can jump-start the digestive process). Maybe use this milk to mix with cereals or thin purees?

There is a process of "scalding" milk that seems to reduce the "rancid" effect... I don't have my resource book with me right now to tell you how to do it... let me send this and see if I can cut and paste something...

Don't throw milk out unless absolutely necessary :-)!

From the La Leche Website:

Under most circumstances, fresh human milk has a mild, slightly sweet scent. Occasionally, human milk that has been frozen and thawed may smell soapy and may be rejected by the baby. In Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession, Ruth Lawrence, MD, postulates that for some mothers, milk stored in a self- defrosting freezer may have had changes in its lipid structure due to the freeze-thaw cycles that occur in such freezers.

In a few cases, mothers have reported that their milk began to smell soapy as soon as it cooled, regardless of whether it had been frozen. "When these mothers heated their milk to a scald (not boiling) and then quickly cooled and froze it," writes Lawrence, "the effect was not apparent and their infants accepted the heat treated milk. That process inactivated the lipase (fat-digesting enzyme) and halted the process of fat digestion." However, high heating may lower some nutrient levels, including ascorbic acid (vitamin C). If the milk already smells sour, heating will have no effect on flavor or smell. Milk that smells rancid likely is, and should be discarded.

Hi V.,
You may have too much lipase in your breast milk. Here is a link from KellyMom.com regarding how to detect it and what you can do.

I'm so sorry you had to get rid of all of that milk!!! I know how heartwrenching it is to have gone through all of the trouble of pumping only to have to toss it all. I get upset if I have to toss 5 oz., let alone 100 oz!!

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/lipase-expressedmilk.html

If it was in a deep freezer, I doubt that it was actually spoiled. I had a similar experience, I absentmindedly put a spoon in my mouth that I had just mixed his cereal and thawed breastmilk with. It was HORRIBLE. Right then I dumped everything I had frozen and only used freshly expressed or supplemented with some formula. We had been giving him the frozen stuff with no complaints from him for a while before I did this. Around that time too someone else on mamasource had realized the same thing. For whatever reason, I think that freezing the milk changes the flavor. Don't forget too that your breastmilk takes on the flavor of what you have eaten, so that day it was a disgusting mix of a dinner I had had. YUCK!

I'm so sorry Vicki that this has happened to you. As we know, breastmilk is "liquid gold" to us and we put so much time and effort is storing it. This happened to me with my first baby and I cried.

It may or may not be your bags at all. You can try to pump one bag and try a different bag, such as Medela bags which are thicker, and freeze and then try to thaw to see if it is your bags. If that doesn't work, then it could be too much lipase in your system. Some moms have too much lipase in their milk. Lipase is an enzyme that breaks down fat.

However, this doesn't mean you can't freeze milk anymore, newly expressed milk can be stored by first scalding the milk. Scalding the milk inactivates the enzyme so it stops the process of fat digestion.

To scald milk:

*Heat expressed milk to about 180 degrees F, or until you see little bubbles around the edge of the pan. Do NOT heat it to a full rolling boil.

*Quickly cool and store milk.

Scalding the milk will in fact destroy some of the beneficial properties of your breast milk but not all of them and it still retains enough properties to be more beneficial than formula.

I hope this helps for you. Best of luck. BTW, this did not happen with my second baby, only my first...so each pregnancy is different. You could also check with your local lacatation consultant or your local la leche group.

take care.
S. C.

S.

I agree w/ some of the responders -- your milk may not have actually spoiled, but rather tasted different because it was thawed.

Do you have any left over? I would contact a rep from La Leche and ask if you can bring over a sample for them to assess.

If you're willing to spend the money, I just went and bought a ton of pumping bottles and froze my milk in them. No worries with bags anymore, and much easier to defrost and feed.

V.,

It sounds like your freezer isn't turned down low enough.

How did you thaw the bags? Either a bath in hot water (about 4 min), or leaving in the fridge 4-6 hours then warming them up, should be all your needing. If you are microwaving them, stop!

It should not be the bags. I didn't freeze because I didn't pump enough (and other issues). So that's why I'm thinking it's the temp on your freezer. It should be 32 or 30.

It may also be the time spent in the fridge before you freeze also (if you are 'adding' to a bag or freezing it right away). You can add fresh milk to frozen, so long as it is going into a low temp deep freeze.

Good luck,
M.

Wow, that must have been really upsetting! I didn't see anyone suggest that you try cooling the milk before putting it in the freezer. I've read that it could turn bad if you're taking the milk from your 98.6 degree body and putting it right in the freezer. Either let it sit out and cool to room temp or put it in the fridge for a little while first. Hope this helps!

Hello V.,

Wow, that is really sad that so much of your milk spoiled. Something similar happened to me but I just had a bit of milk. For me it ended up being an over abundance of lipase in my breastmilk. I would look up/google lipase in breast milk. From what I remember it is a naturally occurring enzyme that some healthy women just have more of. It helps make milk more digestible but in oversupply can be problem as it breaks down milk turning it a sourish taste/smell. There is a method to scald milk slightly before freezing to break down enzyme. I would follow the link in Elissa's response.

-J.