Feezing breastmilk question

rascus15

I am a ftm due in April.  I plan on breast feeding if possible (I have had a reduction so it is a wait and see thing)  My question is concerning breast milk.  A friend who breast fed both her babies told me that she could never do a breast/bottle combo because she couldn't freeze her milk.  She said her milk was too rich in one of the nutrients that left her milk tasting like soap after being frozen.  If I am ablet o BF I will need to supplement with breast milk in a bottle because I will be returning to work.  I am already concerned about knowing if baby is getting enough (other moms have told me don't worry I will know)  but now I am concerned that I won't be able to freeze the milk.  Has anyone had experience with this?  What did you do?

kanga1622Wed220857

Excess lipase is not that common. If you do happen to have it, you can scald the milk before freezing to stop it from getting the soapy taste.

rascus15

Thank you!

kt012885

This is my advice.  My milk came in right away and breastfeeding worked well for us.  I started pumping the day after I got home from the hospital. I'd pump once a day for a couple weeks then I'd do twice a day.  (some people say don't do that bc it messes with your supply but I wanted a big freezer stash so I needed more milk).  So 6m pp- I still have 30 (6oz) bags of milk and I love having that as a backup.  Somedays I am a bottle short for DD but I have a stash to get into. 

I didn't give DD her first bottle til she was 6 weeks probably just bc your supply will increase better with nursing than pumping.  Now what I pump at work- DD gets the next day so she gets fresh bm everyday and then DC gal has a bag of my freezer stash in case DD needs more.  GL!

kt012885

@sing2phins yes but obviously I went way off and I apologize.  She said "I am already concerned about knowing if baby is getting enough" and that she will have to bottlefeed so I was going by that since I couldn't really respond to the not being able to freeze part.  Her LO hasn't arrived yet and she's FTM and worried so I thought I'd just give her my experience.  Also I included that I pump fresh milk for DD for the next day and maybe that's something she hadn't considered either.

kt012885

OP I apologize I didn't answer your question- I don't have any experience with that.  I should have said not to worry about that right now because I don't think it's super common & I hope that breastfeeding works for you.  I wanted to just give you some of my advice bc breastfeeding and pumping has consumed my life for the past 6 months.  It's what I think about all the time- I plan my life around pumping times/schedules and I remember being most scared of breastfeeding when I was pg.  Way more scared of that than giving birth (not sure why) but thought if I gave you some input that maybe it would help calm your fears.

rascus15

kt012885 said:

OP I apologize I didn't answer your question- I don't have any experience with that.  I should have said not to worry about that right now because I don't think it's super common & I hope that breastfeeding works for you.  I wanted to just give you some of my advice bc breastfeeding and pumping has consumed my life for the past 6 months.  It's what I think about all the time- I plan my life around pumping times/schedules and I remember being most scared of breastfeeding when I was pg.  Way more scared of that than giving birth (not sure why) but thought if I gave you some input that maybe it would help calm your fears.

No need to apologize.  I appreciate any tips I can get!  My original question was answered by Kanga, but I like any additional info. I am new at this.  No one in my family has ever been successful at breastfeeding for various reasons.  This is a good place for me to come for advice at I appreciate when I get it, even if it is expanded from my original question

jesuisfatiguee

I have some excess lipase in my milk, but if I freeze it within a few hours of pumping, the taste isn't affected too much and DS will drink it.

BLPL101

I have excess lipase in my milk and my daughter doesn't care. The only reason I even found out was that I give my milk to a friend who adopted a child and her daughter didn't like it! 

sschwege

I have this and as pp said you can scald it.  But some babies will accept it fine without scalding.  My babies never seemed to care and they had 99% of their feeds from the breast, so they were used to fresh milk, it just never bothered them.  

Sorry don't know why my post is underlined all of a sudden!

kelli&dave

Like pps have said, i don't think it's that common and you totally shouldn't worry, but I have excess lipase and have begun scalding the milk i freeze and it definitely works. It seems that the only time my little guy has a problem with the taste is when the milk has been frozen for a couple of weeks. Not sure if it gets worse with time, that's just my experience.

Also, i mixed a couple oz of freshly expressed milk with the frozen stuff i had before i began scalding and he was just fine with that too. So even if you do end up with a soapy tasting stash, there are multiple solutions and it's not something you should worry too much about.