What to do with frozen colostrum? And frozen breastmilk question.

[HarderToKidnap]

I harvested my colostrum antenatally and have about 6 bags of 10ml each. Is it worth defrosting and giving to baby now (7 weeks old) or a bit pointless?

Also, tonight I have tried to give DS a bottle of defrosted BM. He has had two bottles of EBM before but they were fresh. He took them fine but is struggling tonight with the defrosted stuff. It looks and smells fine - is he just being a bit fussy or will some babies not take defrosted BM?

Thanks

I'm just guessing from what I think I've read before but think you loose a lot of the good in BM when frozen so I'd guess a lot of the stuff in colostrum will have been killed by the freezing. Maybe the defrosted ebm is too cold for ds? Sorry I can't help more

Thanks for responding. I did warm the defrosted stuff to room temp, so it wasn't that. He has just taken quite a lot more now so maybe he was being a bit unsettled.

Hi. Freezing doesn't make bm nutritionally empty. Yes, it's not as good as straight from the source but still nutritionally superior to say offering a bottle of formula in its place. Nb don't shake the milk.

Re the colostrum why not call your local milk bank? This stuff is liquid hold for preemies. Google uk milk banks.

Alternatively I can't see any reason why you can't mix some of the colostrum with a bottle of ebm next time you offer a bottle ? Note that it has laxative effects - as it's designed to move meconium out of the digestive tract.

Re taking the bottle this is a really common problem. Google bottle refusal. Getting the milk really warm (but not too hot - and defo never microwaved!) helps sometimes but some breast fed babies just never take a bottle unfortunately.

Hth