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Originally Posted by mybabysmama  ...
Get an appliance lock for your freezer. The cheap kind in the child safety section. We didn't put one on our freezer and lost half my stored milk when we went away for the weekend and the freezer hadn't been shut all the way. You can imagine my devastation.
Consider saving your milk in very small quantities. You don't know how much milk you'll make once you put the baby to breast. Turns out I only need to supplement with 1 or 2 ounces a day--and now not even that.
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mybabysmama,
These are really great practical tips.
Here is some info on when you can re-freeze thawed milk. Sorry for the length but I think all of this info is necessary for making an informed decision and for trying to figure out if the milk is still good when you actually go to use it.
If anyone thinks this should be posted as a separate "sticky", let me know and I will look into that.
Some day I will try to find the link to Dr. Newberg's opinion. I think some would find it more reassuring to see the original email from him to a Milkshare member which was posted on their site.
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.
They do mention the sniff/test taste (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.
Additionally, 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.”
I think what seems to be 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. If you really, really need the milk I would suggest re-freezing it all ASAP and put a special note on the milk that seemed fully thawed. When you go to use the milk I would give it the Kellymom sniff/taste test, especially the milk that seemed fully thawed.
When I had supply issues with DD1 I occasionally used the sniff/taste test with refrigerated milk that looked a little funky; and several times I did give her milk that seemed a little off but that she didn't seem to balk at (at least not too badly ). The alternative would have put me dangerously close to needing to supplement with formula at some point.
You don't have to decide now unless you are really tight on freezer storage. I would suggest marking the bags (F.Th = Fully Thawed and P.Th = Partially Thawed) and then see how you do pumping in the next several weeks.
If you take this approach there is one more point to consider, how to balance the possibly older questionable milk against the newer frozen milk. If you think that you are probably going to need the questionable milk then I would start using it now to increase the chances that it will still be "good" (rather than letting it age any longer than necessary).
Quote:
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.” |
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| Quality for Keeps: Freezer Problem Solver http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/...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. …” |
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I had started pumping three times a day for 10min. each time and taking 80 mg. of domperidone (20 mg/4x/day) and had milk within 2 days and was freezing within a week. Glad I started before we started the homestudy so I was ready to go when we got the call. I nursed her until she was almost three. She took a short break for a few months but got interested again after watching other babes nursing and did it until 2 weeks before her 3rd b-day. So it can be done sucessfully!
