Is my stored breastmilk ruined?

[Nickiholly]

Second time mum and have been feeling great about my religious use of milk collection shells and haakka, have built up a great freezer stash for my newborn.

but I’ve just realised I haven’t been sterilising properly. I’ve just been putting all parts in about a litre and a half of water in an uncovered basin with a Milton tablet, not the five litres in a covered unit suggested. So is my milk unusable to be drunk by my baby? Is steam sterilising what I should be doing?

It will be absolutely fine! You don’t even have to necessarily sterilise with breast milk, just wash with hot soapy water :)

You'll be fine. The Milton has been stronger than it needs to be, so everything will definitely be sterilised 😊

Breast milk is self sterilising. It’s pretty close to a magic potion. Washing in warm soapy water and rinsing well is sufficient. Also, if the milk does by any small chance go ‘off’, your baby will refuse to drink it.

It’s one of the reasons breast feeding is easier as there is no need to sterilise with solutions.

I would say definitely follow the water to tablet ratio in future though as you're making a stronger sodium hypochlorite solution than needs be so essentially a stronger bleach and any residue can irritate a baby's mouth if they do come into contact with bottles sterilised in stronger bleach, not sure if it can leach into the milk collected in a haaka but best to follow the guidelines.

I would squirt some on your hand and taste it. If it’s spoiled I think you’ll be able to tell. It’s worth doing anyway because even if it’s been sterilised perfectly it doesn’t always come out well after the freeze and thaw.

Thank you so much for the kind advice, everyone