defrosting breastmilk

[jocie]

have been expressing for a while so have a good frozen supply. When i defrst a bag ( done 3 now) there are little flakes of milk(can't think of any other way to describe it) in the milk. Is this normal? Can i still use it?

Yes and yes...how are you defrosting it? I used to pup my sealed bags of BM into a mug of warm water. You shouldn't defrost/heat BM in a microwave (am sure you know that already though )

yeah, that's normal, I think the different component parts of the milk defrost at different rates, the watery bits defrost first and then the fats go (or vice versa, I can't quite remember) so those flakey bits are just the last frozen bits. I used to squish the bag around in my hand for a minute or two to break them up before putting it in a bottle, they'll defrost anyway if you warm the bm up a little in a cup of hot water as ilove said.

agree its normal. I defrost it in a jug of warm water, then swirl it about a bit to mix it all up, as it does separate.

Thanks for replies, i defrost it overnight in the fridge but havn't tried warming it up yet so will try that next time.(fgrin)