Has my frozen breast milk gone off?

[Maudy]

This is actually a mesage from my sister who doesn't have access to a computer. she can never get hold of her health visitor and so always phones me with her baby queries, having had 2 of my own. For once I am not sure of the answer. What else could I do but turn to the collective wisdom of all you mumsnetters out there.

Can you help me with this? She has been expressing lots of milk and freezing it for a month or so. At first when she defrosted it, it seemed fine but the last batch she did smelt cheesy and a bit rancid. She says that she did nothing different, froze the milk straight after expressing and left it for no longer than a month. I can't remember what defrosted breast milk is like. Does it change in smell and consistency or should it still be a bit sweet like when it is freshly expressed?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

It should not go bad and it can stay in freezer for longer....
I would not wirry about consistency (it can be quite srange) but smell???? I am not sure !
If she is not sure she should defrost another one and check.... she may have been VERY unlucky with 1 bag !

I think she defrosted a few and now feels she has to throw the whole lot away. She is going to work next week, just for a day, and wanted to make sure she had enough frozen for her partner to feed while she is away. Now she has thrown lots away she has lost her back up supply. Her daughter has not had a bottle for a while and so my sis was going to try and give her a bottle a day for the next week to get her used to it again, but she now has no milk. As she is going to be awy for the whole day next week she doesn't want her daughter to have to have formula all day, so she now needs to create a back up of milk in the week to come. I suggested that she gives her a bottle of formula every day for the next week and then expresses after that feed. Then her partner can give breast milk whilst she is out.

Have just read this back and realised how garbled it sounds but would just like to know what people think and more importantly what defrosted breast milk should be like.

Thanks for your help by the way pupuce!

Maudy .... I'm sure the milk is fine. It can be frozen for 3 months, and I've also heard that 6 months or more in the freezer is just fine. I've certainly used milk that's been frozen for over 4 months. The milk DOES sometimes smell a bit funny after being frozen for some reason. I know my frozen milk does. I guess it should taste roughly the same? Not sure as I've never really tasted mine.

Also, the consistency may well be funny, the breastmilk separates very easily and will often have gloopy white bits floating in it (Yum!).

What a shame she threw the milk away - as I really doubt if there was anything wrong with it.

To build up her supply she could try a couple of things - she could express first thing in the morning. Maybe the baby only feeds from one side or doesn't completely finish both sides. She could feed the baby one side, express from the other and then let the baby finish off what was there.

Alternatively she could fit in an extra 'expressing' feed last thing at night - I used to feed my dd several times during the day, then put her to bed after a feed at 7pm and express again at 9.30-10pm. I would only get 2-4oz, but it's amazing how quickly your freezer stocks build up if you do that every day.

Milk when it defrosts often separates and you get curdy bits floating around. Once you give it a good shake it is normally fine. It also can have various smells depending on the food you ate prior to expressing. It is hightly unlikely that there is anything wrong with Maudy. Tell you sister not to worry. I usually always defrosted milk directly before using it, running under hot water. That was so I did not defrost too much at a time since it is liquid gold.

Milk when it defrosts often separates and you get curdy bits floating around. Once you give it a good shake it is normally fine. It also can have various smells depending on the food you ate prior to expressing. It is hightly unlikely that there is anything wrong with Maudy. Tell you sister not to worry. I usually always defrosted milk directly before using it, running under hot water. That was so I did not defrost too much at a time since it is liquid gold.

Milk when it defrosts often separates and you get curdy bits floating around. Once you give it a good shake it is normally fine. It also can have various smells depending on the food you ate prior to expressing. It is hightly unlikely that there is anything wrong with Maudy. Tell you sister not to worry. I usually always defrosted milk directly before using it, running under hot water. That was so I did not defrost too much at a time since it is liquid gold.

My son refused frozen milk and when I happened to taste it, it was digusting and rancid. Even after leaving it in the fridge for more than 1 day it became bad tasting. After a lot of surfing the net I found out this could be due to an enzyme called lipase. However, if you briefly warm the milk up in a pan til you get a few bubbles at the edges (not boiling) you can avoid the problem. Anyway, when I went back to fulltime work he was about to start solids so he became less dependent on milk so I needed just to express once in the morning and once in the evening.

Sorry Lailag, do you mean you heat it up like that before you feed them or before you freeze it?

I heat it immediately after expressing.
I found the information at lalecheleage.com forum section/pumping issues (Baby hates milk that's been frozen! nikkid 11 21-20-1910 40:10 PM)

I and a friend had exactly the same problem as your sister, Maudy. We religiously expressed and froze our milk for months, building up a big stockpile in the freezer, only to find it smelt and tasted rancid on thawing. I thought it was off and so did my friend. It tasted yukky too and neither of our babies would have anything to do with it so we threw it away. In the end, neither of us needed it as both of us found that we couldn't afford the childcare so didn't go back to work but it is interesting to see that someone else has the same experience. So it was not off after all? Certainly smelt and tasted like it was.