Yellow BM??

Mish2g

I have never seen this happen...I'm cycling through my frozen breast milk still and am currently finishing up October's stash. I took a bottle out at 630p and fed the baby at 7. He left 2 ounces in the bottle, so I left it out so he could finish it at his 1030p feeding, like I do every night. However, when I went to prepare more bottles, I noticed that this bottle was almost neon yellow. I thought it was just the lighting so I took it over to the sink and the top layer was literally yellow....like butter! I threw it out because I'd rather be safe than sorry. I've never see anything like this. Have you? I don't think it was bad to begin with because it had no smell and my little guy drank almost 4oz of it.

Thoughts?

sapphirewolfkdv

I am not an expert because my attempt at BFing ended with dismal failure, but my milk was often yellow when I pumped. I had read that it can be a milky white to a yellowish color...

maronesa

The color change could be due to what you ate when you pumped (especially B-complex vitamins).

 But, more importantly, once LO starts a bottle, it should be finished within an hour and any remainders discarded.  Bacteria will build up in the nipple and bottle from saliva. When my LO in the NICU there was a baby there who got sick and hospitalized after mom feeding a bottle hours after it was started. 

kjuryfl

I've never seen neon yellow BM, but the fat in your milk does seperate when storedand  is a richer color.

BakingMrsC

I just want to note, you shouldn't be using that extra milk hours later. Once they touch the bottle, it's only good for an hour. Maybe put less in the bottle to begin with so you're not wasting any.

megsta1

Frozen milk normally thaws out to a yellowish color.  My frozen stash is always yellow.

Mish2g

Thanks...I just haven't seen the yellow before.

As far as throwing out whatever's not finished -- I hadn't heard about that either!! I'm thankful he hasn't gotten ill in the past 3 months we've been letting him finish his leftovers!!

lj smith

Actually the 1 hr rule only applies to formula. You can safely use breastmilk at the next feeding if there is leftover, but it should be tossed after that.

https://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html