How does thawed breast milk smell

Lawrence, R. Breastfeeding: A guide for the medical profession. Philadelphia: Elsevier. Nitrogenous components of milk. Human Milk Proteins. Mohrbacher, N. Breastfeeding answers made simple: A guide for helping mothers. Amarillo, TX: Hale Publishing. Penn, A. Effect of digestion and storage of human milk on free fatty acid concentration and cytotoxicity. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 59 3 , DOI: Spitzer, J. Food Chemistry , Vieira, S.

Challenges of utilizing healthy fats in foods. Advances in Nutrition 6 3 SS. For best printing results, open the llli. Although you can view the site well in any browser, printing from other browsers might not operate correctly. Click the Print button that is displayed on the web page not the Print command on the browser menu or toolbar.

This opens the browser print window. This defrosted milk will fall into one of the following categories: Just the same as your freshly expressed or refrigerated milk. Obviously, this is fine to give to your baby. This is perfectly fine. Some babies those with a discriminating palate, I suppose will not drink this milk.

If you have a hoity-toity baby who will only accept the freshest and finest breastmilk, you may need to follow the directions for the third scenario below. Some women, and my heart goes out to them, have stinky milk. The lipase in their milk works fast and a little too well. This milk defrosts and smells obviously spoiled. You may not even need to taste it to know for sure, but if you do, it will taste like sour milk. Scalding Your Breastmilk Supplies Needed: Small sauce pan for stove Breastmilk freshly expressed Clean bottle to transfer milk into Funnel Container with ice bath to cool milk immediately Freezer storage containers bags, trays, etc.

Instructions: Collect all supplies and set up first. Katie Madden. The Pumping Rules. Previous Post Growth Spurts. Katie Madden March 8, Bottle Feeding Pumping Breastmilk Guidelines.

Most babies do not mind a mild change in taste, and the milk is not harmful, but the stronger the taste the more likely that baby will reject it. Lipase is an enzyme that is normally present in human milk and has several known beneficial functions:. There is evidence that there may be a decrease in lipase activity over time in mothers who are malnourished. Many mothers who need to store their expressed milk but have problems with excess lipase sometimes wonder whether changing their diets may help.

This post to the LLLI forums discusses some ideas from human milk researcher Leon Mitoulas about this question: Can diet changes help with the Lipase issue? What can I do if my storage problem is due to excess lipase? However, newly expressed milk can be stored by heating the milk to a scald to inactivate the lipase and stop the process of fat digestion.

Scald the milk as soon after expression as possible. Scalding the milk will destroy some of the antiinfective properties of the milk and may lower some nutrient levels, but this is not likely to be an issue unless all of the milk that baby is receiving has been heat-treated.

Assuming the milk was fresh and smelled fine when placed in the freezer, this is most often due to an excess of the enzyme lipase in the milk. Lipase helps to break down the fats in breast milk, making it easier for babies to digest. Women who have a lot of lipase in their milk find that it continues to break down the fats even when the milk is frozen, resulting in a soapy or rancid odor when the milk is thawed.

This breakdown of fats is not harmful to your baby, and the milk is safe to feed her. But some babies will balk at the change in smell; other babies seem to hardly notice.

All you have to do is heat the fresh milk just to the point of boiling, then let it cool again before freezing it.