My breastmilk stash

I pumped and froze a 20.5 cu ft. freezer full of breast milk because I wanted to make sure my daughter got breastmilk for the first year and since I was making so much milk I thought maybe I could freeze enough for a year and half. I was also in a lot of pain and was having trouble getting the milk out which landed me in the ER one night.

Thank God I didn’t need to use this milk because I found out later after using some of the frozen breastmilk for a supplement that it smelled and tasted funny. It smelled a little sour or bad or like soap. I learned that excess lipase can make your milk taste and smell this way. All that means is that lipase is breaking down the fat too fast and making it have that smell and taste. It does not lose any of the nutritional value but some babies will not drink it. Jessica didn’t like it.

We used lansinoh brand breast milk bags which worked well for us, plus we got them half price at the military base grocery store. The guidelines from La Leche Legue for freezing and storing breastmilk for healthy full-term infants are the following:

1. Freshly expressed at room temperature 4-6 hours, if its insulated with a cooler pack it could be 24 hours.
2. Refrigerated fresh milk 3-8 days, thawed milk is 24 hours
3. Frozen refrigerator freezer 3-6 months (ideal 3-4 months), deep freezer -4 degrees F 6-12 months (ideal 6 months)

I was trying to use milk that was 8-9 months old when it tasted bad. You can test your milk to see how long it will store before it breaks down. You can also scald your milk before freezing to prevent the lipase from spoiling the taste.

The following websites may be helpful if you need more instruction of information about how to handle and save breastmilk.

http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/tips-and-solutions/11/collection-and-storage-of-breastmilk

http://www.llli.org/faq/milkstorage.html and https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/recommendations/handling_breastmilk.htm 

Please leave any suggestions or comments on how you have stored breastmilk any new ideas?

 

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