how to know my expressed milk went bad?

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1

My baby is exclusively fed with expressed milk so I try to pump on every feeding to keep a good supply. Normally I have in the fridge about 10 to 14 storage bags (1 feeding per bag).I store them in a little frdge in my bedroom used just for that. He drinks milk not older than 48 hours. But sometimes I notice some older milk looks funny. But has no smell or strange color. is more the consistency
So my question is: How to identify a milk that went bad?
Thanks already for your reply. I really need some insight on this matter!

2

Hi Luciana! Wow - your doing a lot of pumping! Be sure to pat yourself on the back! Breastmilk will "settle" when it's being stored in the fridge...and will separate...so you'll see the fat rise to the top. You can store milk for 7-10 days in the fridge...so if it's been refrigerated, then it'll be fine. If you need to store it beyond 10 days, put it in the freezer.

Hope that helps!

3

Breastmilk naturally seperates, even if just left in the fridge briefly.
You should be freezing your breastmilk, though, not just refrigerating it.

4

If you decided to freeze breast milk or anything else, do not freeze them in plastic bags- they out gas with dioxin (a toxin), and smell!

I had to throw away bags of my breast milk after detecting a strong 'plastic' smell and taste and it did not appear healthy for anyone esp. a newborn.

good luck!

5

You can get really great free info from La Leche League, but from my own experience I can say that bad milk smells and tastes awful! There's quite a variety of consistency of good milk throughout the day and from month to month. It depends on all sorts of things based partly on your baby's fat needs. So milk that's good can be quite watery to thick and creamy, the cream can separate to the top and be yellow, and anything in between.

Here's an article from La Leche League that's about all this:
http://www.llli.org/NB/NBJulAug98p109.html

6

hi luciana,

breast milk should be good for 72 hours in the fridge. sometimes it separates (the fats from the water soluble part) and just needs to be mixed back together.

don't know how to ID bad breastmilk...by smell? by date?

good luck,

glenna