What is wrong with my expressed milk - it keeps going off???

[pooter]

Hiya, I got some expressed milk out of the freezer today and put it in the fridge to thaw for a couple of hours. It had separated slightly - fair enough i thought and swished it around a bit (in a lansinoh freezer bag) but when i poured it out i thought it smelled a bit odd, so i tasted some, and it was definitely off. I did actually hand express a bit to taste for comparison(felt a bit weird for doing it, but it seemed the sensible thing to do) so i know it wasnt right. What on earth went wrong? I used a freshly sterilized pump, straight into a lansinoh glass bottle which i then poured into a new freezer bag and froze immediately. It was in the freezer for about 4weeks.

I used to have this problem when i expressed and kept it in the fridge - it went off within the day. I thought it wasnt meant to do that. Im now thinking my boobs are riddled with bacteria - i thought bm was sterile?? oh i dont know. I want to mix some baby rice/porridge up for my little one, and would prefer to use bm. Anyone got any ideas or experience???

[Aitch]

i've seen people mention this before on here. do a search for 'scalding' expressed bm, some people's milk needs to be heated quickly i think before freezing. not something i know a lot about but it's a start.

[pooter]

ooh, thanks aitch - i will get onto it right away. good to see im not the only one awake! (ta for your blw stuff on mumsnet - dead useful xx)

[Aitch]

oh thanks. have you looked at my blog thingie too? it's at babyledweaning.com, there are heaps of good recipes. including, for the lentil weavers amongst you, some rather delicious-sounding millet burgers that i put up tonight.

[tiktok]

Aitch is right - it's to do with lipase in the milk, an enzyme which is higher in some mum's milk than other's. Scalding before freezing prevents it by deactivating the lipase.

[geekgirl]

TIKTOK - could you please check out this thread?

sorry for the hijack, pooter.

[tiktok]

geekgirl, already been there

[fearscape]

I've read that you should defrost bm as quickly as possible, eg in a bowl of warm water, rather than in the fridge. I usually did this with no problems but defrosted it in the fridge once and it seemed to have gone off.

Bm is sterile (I think - correct me if wrong!) but your breast will have normal skin flora on it, so expressed milk is unlikely to be sterile. I think this is the idea behind quick defrosting - bacteria will not grow in the freezer and quick defrosting just before giving the milk to your baby gives them no chance to multiply.

[fearscape]

Just thought if you do scald the milk you should be careful to cool it down as quickly as possible afterwards, bacteria will have a chance to grow in warm or room temperature milk.

[pooter]

thanks tiktok and fearscape - will read about lipase now and do the defrost quickly thing in future too. Thanks very much. Not that its relevant but i gave my son some steamed pear sticks today and he loved it - but then i got all scaredy cat about him choking and i mashed it up. He was not impressed. I will stick to finger food as he desperately wants to feed himself.

aitch - i went on your blw website a few months ago - it certainly gave me the confidence to try it out, so thanks