frozen ebm smells odd

[billiejo]

hello, i was just wondering if anyone could shed any light. i've been building up stocks of ebm but i've noticed that when i defrost them it smells really strong, not like off milk, but almost a bit cheesy like maybe it's on the turn. the batch i defrosted yesterday was 6 weeks old but it is in the freezer, not in an ice compartment or anything. the thing is my baby is 6 months and has very bad reflux so is sick a lot and is a very grumpy feeder but he was particularly bad yesterday and that started to make me paranoid that something's wrong with my milk. thanks for any help. x

bump.

I'm sure your milk is fine

Mine always seemed to separate out a lot more when defrosted from frozen

yes, well mine seems to do that too... it's really yellow, but it's just the smell that worries me??

I read a reply TIKTOK did that said sometimes the amylase content can be high and this can cause the milk to breakdown quicker, hence the smell/look.

Sorry no more advice to give you.

Mine did the same. When it was fresh it was fine but I stockpiled loads and none of it was any good once it was defrosted.

Billiejo, mine used to smell a bit weird too. I couldn't believe anything could be wrong with it so in the end gave it to dd nonetheless. nothing bad happened. not that nice tho... would like to know if everyone has this.

Hiya

Its probably that your milk has a high content of liapase enzymes - heres the science bit: the liapase enzymes break down the carb content of the milk - you know when you mix with baby rice the baby rice starts off thick and then gets runny after a while - well these little enzymes are responsible for that. Anyhoo if you have a high number in your milk they can make your milk smell rancid. There is NOTHING wrong with your milk and most babies will still drink the milk with no problem. If your baby is turning his/her nose up at it there is a solution. Before freezing your milk you need to scald it - put it in a pan - bring the milk up to just before boiling - when it bubbles around the edge of the pan take it off the heat - return to a bottle, and cool rapidly in a sink of cold water. When cool freeze as normal.

Now I say all this assuming that when you defrost your milk you either do so on at room temp and use immediately - or overnight in the fridge - which lasts for longer as its still cool.

Its pretty common - but until someone told me about it I had no clue what was wrong - I had to destroy so much milk it was soul destroying. But there is a remedy - unless of course your baby is not at all bothered by the smell - unlike mine who was a bit partucular!

hope that helps

blimey beansprout, do you mean you had to dump it all?! the very thought of me having to do that makes me feel so depressed.

me too - it can smell different but tbh i think thats just the nature of it - babies dont seem to mind so ...

I did dump as ds didn't want to drink it so there wasn't a lot I could do. Bah.

i'm probably being paranoid but normally my fresh milk smells, well, like milk, but my defrosted stuff reminds me of that really strong smell when your bottle of break-time milk at school had got warm in the sun!! eeuhrrgh. (showing my age now!!) my ds has been so sickly and poorly with his reflux that i'm just really scared of any set backs.

wow broadie, that's a very comprehensive answer!!! thanks for taking so much time to answer, it's much appreciated!! x

I had this, my frozen EBM smelled terrible and tasted horrible! I had a HUGE stash of frozen milk in the freezer, and unfortunately, around two thirds of it had to be thrown away!!! What a waste of pumping!