What is wrong with my expressed milk - it keeps going off???

[pooter]

Hiya, I got some expressed milk out of the freezer today and put it in the fridge to thaw for a couple of hours. It had separated slightly - fair enough i thought and swished it around a bit (in a lansinoh freezer bag) but when i poured it out i thought it smelled a bit odd, so i tasted some, and it was definitely off. I did actually hand express a bit to taste for comparison(felt a bit weird for doing it, but it seemed the sensible thing to do) so i know it wasnt right. What on earth went wrong? I used a freshly sterilized pump, straight into a lansinoh glass bottle which i then poured into a new freezer bag and froze immediately. It was in the freezer for about 4weeks.

I used to have this problem when i expressed and kept it in the fridge - it went off within the day. I thought it wasnt meant to do that. Im now thinking my boobs are riddled with bacteria - i thought bm was sterile?? oh i dont know. I want to mix some baby rice/porridge up for my little one, and would prefer to use bm. Anyone got any ideas or experience???

i've seen people mention this before on here. do a search for 'scalding' expressed bm, some people's milk needs to be heated quickly i think before freezing. not something i know a lot about but it's a start.

ooh, thanks aitch - i will get onto it right away. good to see im not the only one awake! (ta for your blw stuff on mumsnet - dead useful xx)

oh thanks. have you looked at my blog thingie too? it's at babyledweaning.com, there are heaps of good recipes. including, for the lentil weavers amongst you, some rather delicious-sounding millet burgers that i put up tonight.

Aitch is right - it's to do with lipase in the milk, an enzyme which is higher in some mum's milk than other's. Scalding before freezing prevents it by deactivating the lipase.

TIKTOK - could you please check out this thread?

sorry for the hijack, pooter.

geekgirl, already been there

I've read that you should defrost bm as quickly as possible, eg in a bowl of warm water, rather than in the fridge. I usually did this with no problems but defrosted it in the fridge once and it seemed to have gone off.

Bm is sterile (I think - correct me if wrong!) but your breast will have normal skin flora on it, so expressed milk is unlikely to be sterile. I think this is the idea behind quick defrosting - bacteria will not grow in the freezer and quick defrosting just before giving the milk to your baby gives them no chance to multiply.

Just thought if you do scald the milk you should be careful to cool it down as quickly as possible afterwards, bacteria will have a chance to grow in warm or room temperature milk.

thanks tiktok and fearscape - will read about lipase now and do the defrost quickly thing in future too. Thanks very much. Not that its relevant but i gave my son some steamed pear sticks today and he loved it - but then i got all scaredy cat about him choking and i mashed it up. He was not impressed. I will stick to finger food as he desperately wants to feed himself.

aitch - i went on your blw website a few months ago - it certainly gave me the confidence to try it out, so thanks