Things that you need to know about expressed breast milk..

Hi everyone, happy Monday!*yawning as the rain starts pouring here in Shah Alam*

Sorry for a long pause. Nak kena seru balik mood nak blogging after few days rest. Many things to blog about, but there are many things that I need to submit by this week too.Sob sob. Btw, these things have being pending quite long time in my favourites. I really wish I could share with all my darling blogger mommies who specially on breastfeeding, and maybe info for your next kids.InsyaAllah. I've received call from my besties Haiza about her problem handling her ebm which smell a lil bit rancid. So what to do??Here some good info I got from Medela when they twitted about this couple of months ago.

Furthermore, have u ever faced problem when u freezed ur ebm in your top freezer, and the next morning u still see the ebm not freezing??Or suddenly ur ebm de-frosting even there is electricity at your house??Check out whether the ebm has been placed at door compartment or not. If yes, you should not store your milk against the wall of a de-frosting freezer as the milk will not get freeze or they will de-frost themselves on the next day. Happenned to me for few times, but not to worry, doesn't mean that u need to throw the ebm. What I did, if it still within the suggested period and the ebm still smell ok, I just transfer the milk in rack freezer or move to my upright feezer. Moralnye, rajin2 lah check ebm dalam freezer tu ye.

And last things u need to know about ebm handling is, please never ever reheat your ebm using the microwave. Why?? Basicly, we know that heating the ebm using the microwave can destroy many good and beneficial nutrients properties in breast milk. Check out the articles below. For nursery usage next day, pindahkan dulu kat peti bawah so that it can be thawed over the night. ;)

Ok, have your time to read. Its good to refresh the knowledge we have about ebm storage and handing.

My expressed breastmilk doesn’t smell fresh. What can I do?

JULY 28, 2011. Posted in: MILK HANDLING/STORAGE

Human milk that has truly soured has a very distinct sour taste and odor – much like soured cow’s milk. If your milk doesn’t smell distinctly sour or rancid, then it should be safe to give to your baby.If you repeatedly notice that your stored milk doesn’t smell or taste fresh, it might help to go through your storage procedures to see if there is something you could do to improve the smell/taste of your milk:

§  Storage containers: Standard glass or plastic bottles (or any type of leak-proof food storage containers) are acceptable for storing mother’s milk, as are disposable bottle liners or “mother’s milk” bags. The best materials are glass or food-grade polypropylene or polybutylene (hard) plastic. Polyethylene bags (bottle liners) do not preserve nutrients and immune properties as well as glass or hard plastic. (Jones & Tully 2005)

§  If you’re using standard plastic bottle liners, instead try using bags specifically designed for storing human milk.

§  If you’re storing in plastic, try glass instead.

§  Storage conditions:

§  Do you plan to freeze the milk? If you’re not expecting to use refrigerated milk within 5-8 days of expression, then freeze as soon as possible after expression. Use as soon as possible after thawing (but always within 24 hours).

§  Make sure that all packages in your refrigerator or freezer are sealed well, so that your milk cannot absorb odors from other foods. A box of baking soda placed in the refrigerator or freezer may help to absorb odors.

§  Store your milk in the BACK of the refrigerator or freezer, not in the door. Don’t store your milk against the wall of a self-defrosting freezer.

§  Is your freezer cold enough? If your freezer keeps ice cream hard, then the temperature is right.

A few mothers find that their refrigerated or frozen milk begins to smell or taste soapy, even though all storage guidelines have been followed closely. Per Lawrence & Lawrence (p. 781), the speculation is that these mothers have an excess of the enzyme lipase in their milk, which begins to break down the milk fat soon after the milk is expressed. 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:

§  Lipases help keep milk fat well-mixed (emulsified) with the “whey” portion of the milk, and also keep the fat globules small so that they are easily digestible (Lawrence & Lawrence, p. 156).

§  Lipases also help to break down fats in the milk, so that fat soluble nutrients (vitamins A & D, for example) and free fatty acids (which help to protect baby from illness) are easily available to baby (Lawrence & Lawrence, p. 156).

§  The primary lipase in human milk, bile salt-stimulated lipase (BSSL), “has been found to be the major factor inactivating protozoans” (Lawrence & Lawrence, p. 203).

Per Lawrence & Lawrence (p. 158), the amount of BSSL in a particular mother’s milk does not vary during a feed, and is not different at different times of day or different stages of lactation. 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? Once the milk becomes sour or rancid smelling/tasting, there is no known way to salvage it. 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.

To scald milk:

§  Heat milk to about 180 F (82 C), or until you see little bubbles around the edge of the pan (not to a full, rolling boil).

§  Quickly cool and store the milk.

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.

Per Lawrence & Lawrence, bile salt-stimulated lipase can also be destroyed by heating the milk at 144.5 F (62.5 C) for one minute (p. 205), or at 163 F (72 C) for up to 15 seconds (p. 771).

 What if your milk tastes/smells sour, or even rancid, rather than soapy?

If your milk tastes/smells sour or rancid rather than soapy, the cause may be chemical oxidation rather than lipase (Mohrbacher, p. 461). Mom’s intake of polyunsaturated fats may be involved, or  free copper or iron ions in her water. When this happens, Mohrbacher has a few suggestions to try:

§  avoid your usual drinking water (either drinking it or having milk come into contact with it)

§  avoid fish-oil and flaxseed supplements, and foods like anchovies that contain rancid fats

§  increase your antioxidant intake (including beta carotene and vitamin E)

Related info & links : 

Breastmilk Storage & Handling 

Common Concerns When Storing Human Milk by Cindy Scott Duke, from New Beginnings, Vol. 15 No. 4, July – August 1998, p. 109.

Funny Milk from Lactation Education Resources discusses milk that looks or smells unusual

Soapy aftertaste to breast milk Q&A by Debbi Donovan, IBCLC

Expressed breast milk: Frozen breast milk tastes bad to baby Q&A by Debbi Donovan, IBCLC

Storage and Handling of Breastmilk by Becky Flora, BS, IBCLC (see “What about soured or “off” milk?”)

Excess Lipase details one mom’s experience with excess lipase, with lots of great information (including donating her unusable milk to a milk bank!)

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Can I heat ebm in a microwave?

Everybody knows you're not supposed to heat breast milk or formula in the microwave. Why not? The top two reasons usually cited are 1) it kills nutrients, which is scientifically unfounded, unless you're leaving it in there for 20 minutes, or 2) it creates hot spots, which can scald baby, which would be slightly plausible if we weren't talking about a liquid, which is going to have convection currents and is going to be thoroughly mixed long before it gets to baby's mouth. 

Read detail here : 

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-heat-baby-milkformula-in-the-microwave./?ALLSTEPS

Should read about this too!! 10 reason to throw out your microwave!

http://cs.nju.edu.cn/~gchen/news/news1.htm 

http://www.cspinet.org/nah/04_05/microwavemyths.pdf

Check out this article too!!Storing and Transporting the Breast milk:

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/breastfeeding/while-working/storing-transporting-breast-milk

Happy working everyone. May u have a great week ahead..;)