I pumped and stored frozen breastmilk for my daughter. Most of the time she actually drank it fresh from me, but after I started back to work I made sure that I gave the sitter plenty for her. One lazy day I decided to thaw some and bottle feed her. But after I thawed it by sitting it in a warm bowl of water, I could smell the sourness of it. Each one I thawed was sour. I called the nurses line and a few other places and was basically told that I may never be able to freeze my milk because my body produces some enzyme that makes the milk sour. There has to be something that I can do. Please help.
I haven't read the other replies, but have you tried scalding it? LMK if you'd like specific instructions for doing so. It's called a lipase issue - I had it with my second daughter. It was heartbreaking to throw out my "stash" - I'm so sorry.
Kellymom.com, a good source of breastfeeding info, has some suggestions on what to do if thawed milk appears sour:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/lipase-expressedmilk.html
That sounds like a hard dilemma. Have you tried contacting La Leche League? They often know more about nursing and lactation than nurses or doctors. Go to their website--it's really easy to contact them. I once thought my son had acid reflux because he would keep spitting up while nursing, and that's what his pediatrician thought it was. We were giving him Mylanta and everything, but nothing helped. I finally called La Leche League and talked to one of the lactation consultants for ten minutes. She guessed that maybe my milk flow was too abundant and that the baby was having a hard time handling it. She instructed me to nurse him by holding him above the flow instead of below--and voila! Problem solved. I only regret that I was feeding him that disgusting pink stuff for a few days without any real reason.
Good luck!
G.
If you haven't already done so, seek help from a professional lactation consultant, or La Leche. I don't know how much info on lactation a "nurse line" is going to have. Your hospital where you delivered should have LC's on staff, if not, there are independant LC's in the area. Questions I would ask would be... how long after pumping did you place the milk in the freezer? Has this occurred in more than one bottle? What are you storing in? Is it airtight?
A professional should be able to give you some good advice. I hope this all works out, being able to offer breastmilk for your child is wonderful!
I have a close friend who went through the same thing - she started scalding the milk first and that worked for her. As soon as you pump, bring the milk up to a boil and then let cool and freeze. Someone out there will have better instructions I am sure - but it is possible. Good luck!
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You are a commendable mother, concerned and loving. For questions about nursing your child, do not depend on your physician or a nursing staff. I can tell you from experience that their knowledge about anthing nutritional for your family is severely limited........All question regarding nursing problems should be addressed to the LaLeche League, a network of mothers who have been there and know how to communicate.
Aside from returning to work I've had the same issue. Fortunately, with being home, I just resolved to breastfeed DD directly, however, my husband has missed out on having the bottle feeding bond. I definitely recommend checking out KellyMom and look up lypase (sp?). Some women go through the process of scalding their milk (bring milk to bubble with out a full boil) before freezing thus slowing down the souring process. I know how it feels to think you're doing such a great thing pumping and freezing only to find out that all the milk has turned (as an aside, I believe it's just the smell/taste that goes bad, but the milk is still actually ok....check with La Leche or a breastfeeding consultant). Sorry to hear you're going through this. Good luck!
There is something you can do! I had the same problem with my frozen bm. You need to heat it on the stove to where you see a little steam (do not boil), then cool it and feed to your baby. My daughter would not touch my thawed bm until I scalded it and cooled it, then she took it fine, and she is a picky one! Good luck!
A.
Mom to Moriah, almost 6 months
WHAT? I've never heard of such a thing. There are rules about freezing breast milk. I did the same thing when my daughter was young. What nurse line did you call? I would recommend calling a La Leche League leader.
http://www.lllusa.org/web/SanAntonioTX.html
http://www.lllusa.org/web/NewBraunfelsTX.html
It could be that the storage wasn't cold enough or it has been stored too long. Here's some storage info:
http://www.llli.org/NB/NBJulAug98p109.html
The meetings are wonderful. I'm studying to become a LLL leader, but slowly... lots of life going on. Good luck and congratulations on sticking with it.
Someone at the Mothers' Milk Bank of Austin may be able to advise you.
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