WWYD? frozen milk and power outages

[meg-momto2]

the neighborhood i live in is notorious for losing power during wind storms. last year we had no power for 3 days and then half power for a few more days. we had to dump everything in our fridge. we had our first wind storm of the season the other day and had no power for 5 hours. it got me thinking about ways to save my 70+ ounces of milk. i NEED that milk. i work full time and have to pump when i'm home just to keep up with her intake. i figure if i can at least get a hold of ice i can keep it fairly cold. my mom is planning on getting a generator but who know if that will happen. any ideas on what i should do? dry ice? any input would be really helpful. formula is not an option in my home. i'll quit my job if i have to so i can say home a nurse her.

[Breastfeeding Insomniac]

If it is possible, I would get a generator bc if your power goes out and all your frozen milk starts to thaw, you would no be able to refreeze it.

[dillNY]

:
It wouldn't have to be a big one to run just your freezer/fridge.

[Momily]

I have heard that if you keep your freezer full of things that take a long time to defrost (e.g. gallon jugs of frozen water, frozen vegetables), and keep the door closed (duct tape it shut at the first sign of a power outage) things will stay frozen for a while? Perhaps you could do that, and then if it goes beyond a day or two, buy some dry ice and add that to the freezer?

[CathMac]

Info on re-freezing partially and fully thawed EBM

meg-momto2,
Any milk that is still partially frozen will likely be ok if you re-freeze it ASAP. Any fully thawed milk will probably also be ok if you re-freeze it ASAP as long as it has been fully thawed for less than 24 hours. Any milk that has been fully thawed for more than 24 hours is questionable. But if it is close you can mark the bags with a permanent marker, re-freeze it and then give it the Kellymom Sniff/Taste test on a bag by bag basis.

I found a MilkShare posting with an opinion on this topic from David S. Newburg, Ph.D., Director, Program in Glycobiology, Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition, Massachusetts General Hospital.

"My opinion is that if they are only partially thawed, there should be very little if any change to the milk upon refreezing, and that it will be fine for consumption."

Additionally, I have some other references that help explain why partially frozen milk should still be ok. The first link is to the Kellymom Guidelines (for healthy full-term babies, there are different guidelines for Preemies). As with most guidelines, it says you shouldn't re-freeze thawed breastmilk, without commenting on fully versus partially thawed. These guidelines are pretty widely accepted and comparable to any other reliable guidelines that I've seen.

However, these guidelines do mention the sniff/taste test (in general, not specifying refrigerated or frozen). Keep in mind that frozen milk can smell and possibly taste a little "off" anyway, so comparing it to fresh or refrigerated milk may mean throwing away milk that you might not need to; but unless you are familiar with what your frozen milk usually smells and tastes like you might want to err on the side of caution. On the other hand if it doesn't seem too bad you might take a calculated risk and try giving a small amount to baby --who is more familiar with it-- and see if he balks.

***The second link is to a recent Mothering article that implies that you can re-freeze fully thawed milk.***

The third link is to an article on food storage in general. The rule of thumb it gives is that you can re-freeze most anything that hasn't fully thawed.

I think the new rule of thumb combines the principles from the second two links. So it would seem that it is ok to re-freeze milk that hasn't fully thawed.

Breastmilk Storage & Handling
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html

Traveling With Breastmilk
http://www.mothering.com/articles/ne...reastmilk.html
EXCERPT
“The researchers took frozen breastmilk and thawed it, refroze it, refrigerated it and left it out at room temperature. Essentially, they beat it up. What did they find? Breastmilk is fairly robust and does not grow bacteria easily nor lose vitamins A and C or free fatty acids (FFA) to any degree that would harm a full term baby.”

Quality for Keeps: Freezer Problem Solver
http://extension.missouri.edu/explor...nut/gh1506.htm
EXCERPT "Refreezing: In general, food can safely be refrozen only if it still contains ice crystals or if it has been at refrigerator temperature (40 degrees Fahrenheit) for no longer than two days. In addition, use the following guidelines: If foods are completely thawed and have warmed above room temperature, foods should not be refrozen. Discard these foods. …”

Having said all of that, if you have frequent power outages you may need to be concerned about the potential question of re-freezing partially or fully thawed milk more than once. If that’s a likelihood then you really should look into getting a generator.
HTH
~Cath

[meg-momto2]

thank you CathMac. i just spook with my mom. she wants to get a permanent generator hooked up to the gas line for the house(we rent the basement apartment). i don't know if that's going to happen before the storms kick into full swing. we may need to look into a small portable generator for now.

[cschick]

The other thing you might want to do after a power outage is to TURN OVER all the milk in the freezer in the next few days. Use only frozen milk for daycare/the babysitter, freeze all the new milk.

My other thought: freeze the bags flat and keep a frozen whole chicken or turkey breast on top of them.

[meg-momto2]

scshick- i'm confused by "TURN OVER", could you clarify? i've been freezing my bags flat since i started pumping. it's easier to store and faster to thaw. in a crunch i think some dry ice would get us by for a day our two.

[CathMac]

meg-momto2,
One more thought, if you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket you could keep a back up stash in someone else's freezer, assuming they live close enough to get it when you need it but not so close that their risk of a power outage is the same as yours. In other words they might have a power outage but you aren't likely to at the same time or vice versa.
~Cath

[meg-momto2]

Originally Posted by CathMac

meg-momto2,
One more thought, if you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket you could keep a back up stash in someone else's freezer, assuming they live close enough to get it when you need it but not so close that their risk of a power outage is the same as yours. In other words they might have a power outage but you aren't likely to at the same time or vice versa.
~Cath

OMG: why didn't i think of that. my sis lives across town and their power is more reliable during the storms. thanks Cath.

[eggsandpancakes]

i once had to transport a cooler full of frozen BM. 38 hours later, the dry ice was still holding out and the "BM rocks" were colder than they had been in the deepfreeze. We only used 4 pounds of dry ice for a medium cooler.

[paquerette]

Can you invest in a UPS? We're moving soon to an area with sketchy power and we're probably going to do this. Not that I'm pumping or have milk stored, but for various reasons.

[CathMac]

Originally Posted by meg-momto2

scshick- i'm confused by "TURN OVER", could you clarify? i've been freezing my bags flat since i started pumping. it's easier to store and faster to thaw. in a crunch i think some dry ice would get us by for a day our two.

meg-momto2,
"Turn Over" refers to "rotating" your stash. That is using the oldest stuff first and replacing it with the new EBM. She is saying that you should use the re-frozen milk first and freeze the fresh milk you are currently pumping, because the "shelf life" of the re-frozen milk is now questionable. You want to be sure to use it before it goes bad.

Let's say the oldest of the re-frozen milk is 2 months old and you would normally have 1 or 2 more months to use it before you'd have to throw it away. You would usually use the fresh stuff for at least another 2 weeks before starting to use the frozen stuff because you'd rather DC got the fresh stuff as long as possible. However, if you need to preserve your stash it makes sense to use up the re-frozen stuff.
HTH, ~Cath

[CathMac]

Originally Posted by meg-momto2

OMG: why didn't i think of that. my sis lives across town and their power is more reliable during the storms. thanks Cath.

meg-momto2,
Your welcome. One important point, this will complicate rotating your stash. You don't want to forget about the milk at your sister's house and have it go bad before you use it.

If you aren't currently using the "freeze flat" method someone else mentioned I'd start doing it now because it makes inventory management much easier. Once they are frozen you can "file" them in chronological order in tissue boxes (preferably cut to size); and they take up less space. Also, since it reduces the air space between the frozen bags of milk milk it theoretically increases the length of time it would take the for them to melt in the freezer.

On the flip side, the individual bags thaw more easily for use since there is more surface area.
~Cath

[cschick]

Originally Posted by CathMac

meg-momto2,
"Turn Over" refers to "rotating" your stash. That is using the oldest stuff first and replacing it with the new EBM. She is saying that you should use the re-frozen milk first and freeze the fresh milk you are currently pumping, because the "shelf life" of the re-frozen milk is now questionable. You want to be sure to use it before it goes bad.

Let's say the oldest of the re-frozen milk is 2 months old and you would normally have 1 or 2 more months to use it before you'd have to throw it away. You would usually use the fresh stuff for at least another 2 weeks before starting to use the frozen stuff because you'd rather DC got the fresh stuff as long as possible. However, if you need to preserve your stash it makes sense to use up the re-frozen stuff.
HTH, ~Cath

Yup, that's what I was suggesting.

If you've had a power outage, use the affected old milk until it's gone and freeze the new milk. If you have 70oz in the freezer and you're sending 12oz to daycare in a day, you can use up that questionable milk and freeze new milk in just about a week.

[amyleigh33]

If I were in your position and it happened before you get any sort of back-up system in place, then I would definitely keep the previous posts about it being OK to refreeze half-thawed milk, etc. But I would definitely start thinking about getting a back-up system of some sort if at all possible, as soon as possible, since your babe relies on that milk, unless you don't have to go to work on power-outage days and can just BF anyway... But it would still be a shame to waste all that milk!!! I can only express a couple ounces a day and I got sooo upset the couple times that I've left Raven with my mom or sister and they heated up her bottle too soon and it went to waste.