Breast milk experts.....how do I proceed to maximize benefits?

[Judegirl]

Yet another decision I can't seem to make on my own lately...!

Which of the following should I do in order to maximize the benefits of breast milk for dd?

A - Give her fresh BM all the time until one year, and then give her whatever frozen milk is still "good," for a total of bm for probably about 14-15 months.

B - Rotate frozen milk into her feedings now, so that she gets less fresh milk all around, but more breast milk later into toddlerhood, for a total of maybe two years.

I don't know how much of the benefit is lost when breast milk is no longer fresh...does anyone else? (I asked an LC, and she wasn't much help.)

Thanks in advance!

Jude

[Momof3Labs]

Frozen milk isn't as good as fresh milk, plus it doesn't contain your "current" antibodies. I would suggest giving her mostly fresh milk with a little frozen rotated in to keep your stash fresh (as long as she gets fresh milk, she gets the benefits of your antibodies and breastmilk in general).

[spu]

Hi Jude,

The interesting thing about breastfeeding babies into toddlerhood is the composition of the a mother's breastmilk changes as time goes on when the baby grow into a toddler. The longer you can give her fresh milk the better. The nutritional needs of a toddler are different from a baby, so if you can offer fresh milk later on, all the better. I would suggest if you are pumping to have a stash in the freezer, give her a combination of fresh/frozen milk all along the way to make sure she's still getting fresh milk later on.

Are you freezing milk to have a stash incase you're out or while you're at work? Frozen milk is still a great option, but the composition of milk you pump now will be different from the composition of milk you might pump in 6 mos from now, so even though it's still good in the freezer, I would use it up sooner rather than later so it meets your baby's needs at the right time.In fact, there's more antibodies and great nutrients in breastmilk in the 2nd year of life than in the first! I'm nursing my twins (turning 2 in 2 weeks!) and it's been a joy all along.

There's only a slight drop in the breastmilk benefits (if any) once frozen - techically, breastmilk is a living substance - like any body fluid... and once frozen, some of the live cultures may change - which also happens if you scald the milk right before freezing (which I also recommend doing to help preserve the nice sweet smell of breastmilk). Some of the lipase starts to break down in frozen milk and can give it a slightly cheesy smell when thawed, and alot of moms think the milk actually went bad because of this smell, but it's actually not bad at all - it's just due to the lipase breaking down.

Here are a few links that might help too:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/index.html

Good for you for planning to give your baby nature's wonderful source of food and love!

susan

twin girls 7.20.02
charlotte + else

http://sunger2.home.comcast.net/bash/nonflash/year.html

[JMS]

Jude, I hope you don't mind if I jump in on your post, but I am very interested in the answers to your questions.

I just read Susan's reply and I have never heard of scalding BM. Does anyone have any info on this or links (I checked Kellymom and didn't find anything specific)?

I have a fairly large stash of EBM.. unfortunately DD is not a big fan of the bottle.... at all :)
My plan was to start using some of it to mix with rice cereal once she hits the 6 month mark. I'm no expert, and I haven't really researched it yet, but I think this is ok.

BTW, I'm really impressed that you plan to BF (or feed your baby EBM) for +1 year. These boards have been so inspirational to me; everyone has so much great advice and is so encouraging and supportive. Before DD was born, my original goal was to BF until 6 months. Well, I've up'ed it to a year.. and we'll see what happens then. :)

[Momof3Labs]

Yes, you can use frozen EBM with rice cereal or other solids!

[papal]

And Karen made some cookies with EBM too!

[Judegirl]

Thanks for the feedback!

Susan - That was valuable information; thank you so much. I hadn't thought about the composition changing as time goes on...of course, that makes sense.

But...now that I know more, I'm even more confused about what to do! I am not planning on pumping or bfing past one year...so it's really about deciding what to do with the frozen milk - use it now, or save it for a rainy day? She won't get fresh milk after a year...so will the frozen do her little good then, since she'll have such different needs at that point?

I don't mind throwing it all away when the time comes, if it won't meet her needs, as long as it was worth it to give her fresh milk all the time during her first year. Is it? Or is the longer duration more valuable, even if the milk she gets later is older?

Thanks again for the repsonses...this probably isn't supposed to be this complicated an issue, but lately I've been complicating everything!!

:)
Jude

[spu]

Scalding is when you simmer the milk in a pan on the stove just before boiling point. You'll see tiny bubbles start to appear around the rim of the pan. It's a cooking term, and when used to scald breastmilk, it prevents the breakdown of lipase which is what would cause the cheesy smell in frozen milk.

Once you scald the milk, remove it from the stove and cool in the fridge, then freeze as usual.

In terms of mixing breastmilk with foods, that's a great idea. Just be careful not to mix it with other foods that are iron-fortified. The iron in mom's milk is like a super-iron - and it's extremely bioavailable - which means when ingested, most of the iron is actually absorbed by the body. The iron in fortified foods is not nearly as bioavailable, and usually around 30-35% of the iron actually gets absorbed. That's why so many iron-fortified formulas and foods claim to have so much iron in them. But the iron in mom's milk is truly better for babies.... so.... when mixing moms milk with foods, avoid mixing into iron-fortified cereals / oatmeals, etc... and save it for mixing with sweet potatoes or other pureed veggies, smoothies, or other delicious snacks. Otherwise the fortified iron in the enhanced foods will counter-act the bioavailability of the iron in moms milk, making the iron not as useful. I don't mean for it to sound like you can or should never mix bmilk with cereals, etc. just make sure she's getting breastmilk alone too -- to make sure she's getting the best kind of iron.

Oh oh oh -- don't toss your frozen milk! (unless it's gone bad, or over the time limit for frozen milk...) It's still going to be better than anything else out there for your baby to eat / drink - so give it to her in a sippy cup, a smoothie, cookies, anything. By then, she'll be eating other foods as well, so mixing up some frozen b.milk into her diet, even if it was frozen a few months ago, is still wonderful.

-- Jacquelyn, I hear you girl! When I was pg with my twins, I thought I read all I could about nursing babies, but when I actually got started it was a whole new world! I had goals of getting to 6 mos (the hardest goal!) and then a year (a wonderful goal!) and now we're just 2 weeks shy of 2 years and I never thought I'd be nursing 2 year olds! It sounds crazy, but it sure is wonderful! Good luck to you in reaching your goals!


susan

twin girls 7.20.02
charlotte + else

http://sunger2.home.comcast.net/bash/nonflash/year.html

[mamicka]

Susan, can you give links to this kind of information on iron in breastmilk?

TIA!

Edited for spelling.

[spu]

Of course:

http://www.lalecheleague.org/FAQ/vitamin.html

http://www.lalecheleague.org/cbi/journal1.04.html

http://health.discovery.com/encyclopedias/1875.html

http://www.infactcanada.ca/bandiron.htm

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/bf_and_other_foods_01-03.html

http://www.modernstork.com/content/002478.shtml

http://www.liveandlearn.com/formula.html

http://www.drgreene.com/21_26.html

susan

twin girls 7.20.02
charlotte + else

http://sunger2.home.comcast.net/bash/nonflash/year.html