Help - I may have fed my baby sour EBM

[peedieworky]

Hi all,

We've been struggling to get my DS (8 weeks) to take EBM from a bottle & it was getting urgent as I am due to go to hospital for day surgery in a week's time. After changing from Avent to Tommy Tippee he seemed happy taking a bottle from me, so it was DHs turn tonight. DS sank 100mls or so and then became quite upset and refused the bottle. I thought it was that he wasn't happy taking it from DH so I then tried (he refused) and I ended up feeding him myself to top up. It's now 3-4 hours later and I went to empty out the bottle and it smells horrible - a sort of cheesy smell, like brie! Although it has been sitting out for 3-4 hours, it has been in a cool place and it hasn't even separated out so I'm now worried that the smell must have been there when we were feeding him & that this means we've fed him sour milk. DH acknowledged that he hadn't smelled the EBM, as it was labelled from just a day ago but admitted it leaked when he swirled it (which I guess means the lid wasn't on properly?). Or could it be that the smell was due to my diet (I did eat loads of brie that day - but I sense that ain't it and am clutching at straws..)

Am so worried - will it make him ill if it is sour?

I doubt he'd have drunk it if it was sour - 100ml sounds like a full feed anyway?

If he was going to be ill he'd have been sick pretty quickly.

Thanks for the fast reply. He tends to take 140-160mls for his bedtime feed & it was more the fact that he suddenly became so upset. Think I'm just doubly anxious as I really need him to take a bottle so I can get my surgery but at the same time feel so guilty about doing it and hate seeing him get upset with a bottle...

Forgive me for the vague detail here, but some people have an enzyme in their breastmilk which changes its taste to almost rancid when it is stored. I think it was the La Leche book where I read that. Apparently the babies don't mind this too much. A baby who's had 100ml is unlikely to take more bottle from Mummy if he's no longer very hungry and would prefer the breast anyway. I think I had that enzyme and thought I'd fed bad EBM to DS early on. Sometimes I was aware of nasty EBM being poured away after a feed. TMI perhaps. Less so when it was instantly frozen EBM, more so when it was kept a few days and not frozen. I recall the storage rules are 6 hours at room temp, 6 days in the fridge, 3 months in the freezer. Good luck with your surgery. Hope baby is still fine!

My milk always smelt sour after it had been frozen and defrosted. I read that it can be because of different acid levels or something. I think I found it on the Kellymom website.

Was your milk fresh or defrosted?

I doubt he would have drunk it and he'd have been sick by now I agree with Rita.

thank you fusspot - x -posted what I was meaning :o

On the point of the day surgay though. Will they not let you have baby in hospital with you?

You will probably only miss a few feeds. As they can use anatheic which is then fine to BF with.

I was in for day surggary with DD and they had a cot in the room for her and I could feed her only a couple of hours after I'd come round. DD was a bit older so you may have to wait longer, but do ask about this they should be very understanding with such a tinny baby.

I stored ebm in the fridge for a day and checked it before giving it to DS - I nearly spat it everywhere! I never trusted fridge stored milk after that but looks like I might just have that enzyme!

Another vote for taking your baby in with you when you go for day surgery.

Obviously somebody else will have to come to look after your ds while you are actually in theatre, but this will keep the separation to a minimum.

I did this for day surgery in November, ds2 was 8months.

If you are having a gdeneral anaesthetic then it is fine to feed once you come round. Don't let anyone tell you anything along the lines of having to wait 24hrs or anything.

breastfeeding and surgery
on the sour milk issue, read here

hth

The enzyme is lipase and it can be a problem especially with frozen milk, but it's not harmful. Some babies reject it, others don't mind.

You can heat the milk before freezing to stop it.

breastfeedingbasics.info/lipase-and-bad-tasting-breast-milk

It's fine to heat treat milk temporarily while you're in hospital. On another note, if you need to discuss your drugs through and following the hospital visit, give the BfN drugs line a ring: www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/drugs-in-breastmilk.html

Thanks everyone for taking time to reply. I'll check out all the links!

I have the lipase issue! Took me a while but I've worked out how to freeze mik now without it turning to fishy bleurgh.

I also had day surgery quite recently and just wanted to say DON'T WORRY! I had no milk stored because of the going off issue and so there was no choice except to give her formula. I checked but they wouldn't let me bring DD in with me so that was that.

I was so worried but actually it worked out ok. The pre-admissions nurse said to me that lots of babies just seem to feed less when their Mum isn't available for a short time and she was right. I fed her before I left (c.7am) and she didn't feed again until well into the afternoon - and was perfectly happy by all accounts. She had about 3 bottle feeds in total over 24hrs. In the morning when I was sufficiently recovered to be able to feed her again, she latched on and fed almost constantly for the day. And that was that.

Incidentally, she hadn't been near a bottle before. Surgery was pretty short notice so I didn't have time to prepare her. When she was hungry, she figured it out!!