Spoiled frozen EBM?

[CBB]

I started defrosting a few bags of my frozen EBM from May/June and noticed they all have a weird smell. They smell the same as if I left EBM in the fridge for more than 4 days. DD usually refuses to drink fridged EBM from more than 3 days ago. I had to trash them. I'm very upset because I have about 100oz total of hard work from April to June sitting in the freezer. Now that my milk supply is diminished since I started working, I was really hoping to use the frozen stash. Should I just throw them away now? I'm sooo upset!

Thanks,

[sntm]

offer them first -- frozen milk often smells differently because the fat gets broken down somewhat by enzymes in your milk. even though it smells strange to you, it often doesn't taste that differently and your baby may still drink it. DH always complained about the smell of frozen milk (he washes the daycare bottles) but jack always drank it, even though he also didn't like "older" fresh milk.
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shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03
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Breastfeeding 14 months and counting

[jerseygirl07067]

Don't throw any of your hard work away!! I agree with the PP. However I had a similar issue...

Does your baby drink from the frozen stash? If not, I would taste it to see if it's really bad. You'll know the difference for sure. My baby didn't take the freezer stash so I wound up doing a "taste test". All of my frozen stash was nasty and I found out I had a problem with too much lipase in my milk. It also caused the refrigerated milk to go bad after a day or do.

There was no mistaking the taste, it was so bad it made me gag...

Marcy

[lmintzer]

I'm sorry about your 100 oz. I know how hard it is to build such a large freezer stash. I hope that it just is "soapy" as opposed to spoiled.

I also have a problem with too much lipase in my milk. The solution to this is to scald pumped milk immediately (or as soon as possible) after pumping. Make sure you do this before refrigerating it. I have no place to scald at work, so I actually leave my milk at room temp. for up to 6 hours before bringing it home and scalding it. I haven't had a problem yet with milk going bad. I can then leave it in the fridge for a few days or freeze it for up to 6 months.

Definitely do a "test batch" this way--as long as you scald (bring it just to the point where you start to see tiny bubbles around the edges), you aren't losing much in terms of nutritional properties.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

my frozen milk smelled weird too, and when I tasted it, it made me gag. But baby drank it just fine. It wasn't spoiled, it was probably excess lipase. But some babies don't mind the taste.

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

Thanks for the replies. I'll try offering them to DD. I don't have much confidence, since DD normally refuses taking EBM in the fridge after 3-4days. The frozen EBM smells the same as the old EBM in the fridge.