"stringy" milk?

mommyandwife2011

so I pumped LO two bottles and stored them in the freezer,they were only in there one day before we thawed them out. After we thawed them in warm water and swirled it around there was stringy stuff in there-it was like snot. Now,I have noticed this type of stringyness before while he was nursing he pulled off and some came out but it was very little and i didn't think anything of it. However a few weeks ago i had mastitis(went to DR and got antibiotics and all) and hve no signs of it anymore-no tenderness or anything. What could this stringy stuff be? & for those of you who have experienced this,what did you do,keep the milk or throw it out?

 

jess1984

When you shake it does it all mix well? The fatty milk and watery milk seperate when cooling / freezing but shaking well once warmed should make it look "normal" Sometimes my fatty milk looks stringy to me.

mommyandwife2011

no the stringy part just stayed on top. DH poured it in the sink and demanded we not feed our DS "snot" LOL

jess1984

weird. did you cool it before freezing it?

karasue91

When my milk came in, my MW told me it was important to either pump or get baby to drain me (I was having serious latching issues) because if a duct gets clogged, the milk can harden and comes out in a stringy consistency.  Maybe that's what happened and it's an after-effect of the mastitis?

misssurly

My MW said the stringy stuff can be a clogged milk duct letting go... or I showed her my freshly pumped milk that looked kind of congealed. Neither her or the hospital lactation staff had ever seen that before but told me it was an enzyme in my milk doing that and that it was fine to feed to baby. I was straining it out for awhile but they said that could be removing the hindmilk/fatty nutrients LO needs

mommyandwife2011

Thank you all  for the replies! How do you know when the breast is emptied? I usually just let him go for 10 minutes on one side then switch sides...