storing ebm and antibodies

[knaidel]

I've read that by storing ebm in plastic storage bags, some of the antibodies get stuck to the bag, and baby doesn't get them. How do people solve this?

[mamamimi]

Will no matter what you use to store ebm you will lose some of the great stuff in it, also cooling, freezing and reheating impacts ebm. But no matter what you store it in or how you store and reheat ebm it the ebm you baby gets is still richer in antibodies, imunological factors and other good things then formula. I just aim to make the best storage choice I can and try to give DS about 1/2 his intake from ebm and 1/2 fresh from the source.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I solve it by using the plastic bags that are made for breastmilk storage rather than regular ziploc bags. They are made so that the good stuff doesn't stick to the sides like it does to other types of plastic.

And even if some of the good stuff does get "stuck" there is still plenty of it in the breastmilk that I don't worry about it.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
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[anamika]

Hi,
I read/heard that glass bottles are best for this reason but I have never tried it myself. Like the PPs said, most people just use the bags specifically made for freezing BM and that works fine.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

There are problems with glass bottles as well. Some things stick to glass, other things stick to certain kinds of plastic.

Here is one article that mentions it:

http://www.breastfeed-essentials.com...ehandling.html

You can also poke around here:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/b...lkstorage.html

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
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[iib6]

Hi there- I am a physician who is due to have DD in 3 wks and I conducted a search of the medical literature regarding this issue. The fact is that there have been no recent studies comparing glass (pyrex), hard plastic (polypropylene), and soft plastic (polyethylene bags). I was able to find an article from 1999 that used information from an article published in 1981 to construct a table comparing the above storage options with regards to the effect on different breast milk components. In summary - 1) all forms decreased the function of living cells 2) IgA immunoglobulins (a broad category of antibodies that usually line the GI tract) remained stable in all forms(no change) 3)Antibodies to ecoli were decreased in the soft plastic bags only (authors decided to randomly pick one specific type of antibody) 4) lactoferrin (a protein that helps to bind iron for better absorbtion) was decreased only in glass and hard plastic 5) lysozyme (a protein that helps with digestion) was decreased in glass and soft plastic. Interestingly, the authors also found that glass actually decreased the NUMBER of living cells in the breast milk as the cells adhere to the glass more than to plastic - but this is only true for the first 24 hours - after that the little cells free themselves from the glass surface. For those who are interested - the reference for this article is: Acta Paediatr 88: 14-8. 1999.

As you can see, the results on storage containers are a little confusing. Since all the literature on this topic is fairly old (>5 years) there is no information regarding the effect of storage on the essential fatty acids DHA and ARA which are receiving so much press recently.

My take from the above is that each storage system has an effect on the content of breast milk but the medical community does not have all the information yet - and we probably never will. The differences between the types of storage containers appear to be slim. I am going to make my decision based on ease of use; if the system is so complicated that it impairs my desire to pump, that will definitely affect the amount of breast milk my DD receives. I am actually going to a breast feeding store today to check out the option IRL.

By the way, this article also discusses the effects of refrigeration, freezing, and heat pasteurization on the breast milk components. This is one of the articles that gave us the information that breastmilk is good at room temp for 8h, refrigerated (0-4 degrees C) for 3 days, and frozen (-20 degrees C) for up to 12 months. Heat pasteurization does the most to damage the milk constituents.

I hope this is helpful. Beware of the sources of your information - I have read many disturbing "medical" statements made by companies that are designed to serve their own purposes and may have little to no true medical evidence to back them up. You can always ask your doctor - or perform your own medical literature search. Use google to find "PubMed" which is a database made available to the public by the NIH. You just type in key words to start a search. Some articles only have the abstract or summary posted - while others will have the full text. Also beware of conclusions in this articles however - especially if you don't have the entire article in front of you to see how the study was designed. You could always print out the abstract and bring it to your doctor for discussion. I personally have done this for a bunch of friends regarding such important baby issues like circumcision and cord blood banking. Good luck!

[stillplayswithbarbies]

Thank you for sharing that information, that is very useful.

One thing that people should keep in mind too is to think about how long the milk will be stored. I always made sure to give the fresh milk I had just pumped to the baby the next day, and one bottle of the freezer stash so that it did not get too old. (I put one bottle in each day)

> This is one of the articles that gave us the
>information that breastmilk is good at room temp for 8h,
>refrigerated (0-4 degrees C) for 3 days, and frozen (-20
>degrees C) for up to 12 months. Heat pasteurization does the
>most to damage the milk constituents.
>

That is the first time I have heard these numbers. Most books and webpages say 10 hours at room temp, 7 days in the refrigerator, and 3 months in a regular freezer or 6 months in a deep freeze.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
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