Expressed milk separating

[Mustmakemarmalade]

I'm sorry if this has been covered before, but I've noticed that milk which I have expressed and stored in the fridge appears to seperate within a couple of hours.

I have been breastfeeding for over 7 months and DD is thriving but I've only recently started expressing in anticipation of returning to work.

It basically now looks like butter on top and almost clear water underneath. Is this normal? Or could there be something wrong with my fridge, or milk??

I would hate to be leaving her with substandard milk.

Its normal :)

You should store milk at the back of a fridge not in the door - but just shake and it will return to 'milk'

I alwlasy found it interesting that on hot days there was more 'water' and different colours at different times of the day as well.

I was told also that the time of a time milk is expressed varies its nutritional content, when DD was younger we were told but a BFN supporter to feed her expressed milk at the same time it was expressed. As she got older we didn't worry about that so much!

Don't shake it!!!!

This article explains why - it affects the structure of the proteins.

Swirl the bottle / pot gently to get the fatty and watery parts to mix together again.

It is completely normal - think of gold top milk with all that cream on the top, it is like that.

Like pp, it's normal. The fat floats to the top, leaving the fore milk. Just shake it up
To mix.

That's a relief! Thank you all xx

Ah yes - the not shaking - i did forget that.

Shame no one told us that for a few months but we did learn to swirl.

Sorry Eyes didn't mean to be so alarmist! I'm sure it's not the end of the world, but if you go to all the trouble of expressing milk, it would be annoying to affect its nutrients.

I only learnt the not-shaking thing from the nurses in SCBU - it's certainly not something widely known, I think.

Erm, and don't add new milk to a bottle already in the fridge, which for some insane reason I did. Makes it go off.

I didn't know about the not-shaking-thing - useful tip thanks.

Mine would always separate, sometimes there would be a big fat layer at the the top and sometimes hardly any. The dd's never seemed to mind either way.

totally normal. Cows milk also used to do this but now its almost all homogenized, so its something we're starting to forget.

I find it really fascinating!

Thanks didnt know to swirl not shake.

The colour changes too. Sometimes mine looks blue-green