How long is my frozen BM good?

[audmommy]

I have read several differing views on how long frozen BM is good for.. some say 6 months --then I have to toss it. Others have said one year if it is in a deep freeze.

I have about 140oz in my deep freeze in Medela bags in a nice comfy box, but almost all of it is 6 months or older!!

Can I feed this to my bebe? He is 9 months now and my supply is starting to slow down and now I am going to be away from him for 40 hours a week! So I would love to be able to use some of this cushion. But I don't want to get him sick!!

Thanks Mommas!

Angie

[PatioGardener]

It should be fine - best to take some of the oldest out and thaw it and smell/taste it. If it tastes good, it is good!

[cristeen]

Even if it tastes bad, it may still be good (lipase milk can taste horrid). But I go by the 12 month rule. And in fact I've fed my guy older without any ill effects. We had one donor who had 14 mo milk, and I was glad to take it off her hands or else she would have dumped it. Since we're always so desperate for milk, I couldn't see dumping it. I mixed it with fresher milk, but he didn't seem to have any problems with it.

[audmommy]

Thanks so much! I will pull the old stuff out and start having the nanny use it on the 2 days she is here and set the other stuff back.. I usually give him only fresh.. as I can usually keep up with my supply while I am away by pumping but I was leery about the older dates!

Angie

[MaryMarg]

We've used some older-than-suggested bm from the freezer, too, without any ill-effects on DS. He disliked some of the oldest milk and I assumed it didn't taste right, so just kept moving forward in dates til we found what was good! No problems!