Frozen breastmilk, thrush and allergies

[Tattooed Hand]

I have recently realized that we've had thrush for 2-4 weeks. In that time I've pumped quite the little stash of breast milk. I'm taking steps to treat the thrush, but is the breast milk I pumped contaminated? Should I get rid of it?

DD is also severely allergic to something and I've been on the full elimination diet for 8 days now. Should I get rid of the breast milk from before I went on the diet? I could donate it to someone else right? Where/how can I do this?

[kismetbaby]

When I had thrush I was told that my milk stash was still okay to use. However if you are dealing with allergy then you wouldn't want to give your LO milk from before you eliminated the offending food. (Of course you may want to wait till you have established that this is indeed the issue.)

As far as donating. . .there is likely a hospital milk bank in your area, but I don't know all the rules and regs of those. Lots of mamas just privately find someone to donate to though--I believe its illegal in many places to SELL your own BM, but you can always give it away. I've seen craigslist adds, there is likely a place to advertise here on MDC, or you can just find your local mamas place and make a connection that way. I think it would be wonderful to find someone in need if you can't use your stash!!! It is quite a process to ship it, but many mamas are happy to cover the cost for that to have BM. If nothing else, I'd contact my local LLL, they might know of a mama in need.

Good luck!

[mommajb]

I don't think I would donate milk pumped during the time you suspect you had thrush.

Perhaps looking at the website for the bank you would donate to for specific guidelines would help as they do vary?

[Tattooed Hand]

does anyone know if the milk I pumped when we had thrush will reinfect the baby if I give it to her?

[jecombs]

Per kellymom.com:

Using milk frozen during thrush treatment
Milk frozen during thrush treatment can be given to baby without a problem while you are still being treating for thrush.

Many sources recommend that mothers do not freeze expressed milk for later use when they are being treated for thrush. We do know that freezing deactivates yeast, but does not kill it (Rosa 1990), so there is a theoretical risk that milk expressed during a thrush outbreak could reinfect baby at a later date. However, there have been no studies that tell us whether or not this defrosted milk is really a problem.

My personal experience: I used milk pumped during a thrush outbreak with no problems.