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frozen milk question

MamaNikitaMamaNikita member
in Breastfeeding
i'm not going back to work til 6 months (which will be march) and i've been pumping at least one session per day all along.  so now i'm coming up on three months for the september milk and there's no real need to use it til i go back to work.  we live in an apt. and can't get an extra freezer.  my question is on how long the frozen milk is good.  i read three to four months in a regular freezer, but what happens to the milk after that?  does it lose its nutritional value or does it go bad/sour?  will i be able to tell if the milk is bad?  i don't want to get rid of it if there's a chance it could be good up to six months.
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Re: frozen milk question

  • mrs.mastromrs.mastro member

    I wouldn't count on it lasting 6 months.  I had to dump a bunch of 4-5 month old milk recently.  It looked yellowish to me and definitely smelled and tasted gross.  Why don't you feed the older milk you have now to your LO and then refreeze new milk to rotate your stash?  

    I definitely recommend regularly giving your LO a bottle if you're not already.  I stopped giving DS a bottle after a few months because I really had no need to, and now he basically refuses it unless he's absolutely desperate. 

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  • MamiJamMamiJam member
    After 3-4 months in a freezer (not deep freeze), there is likely to be excessive amounts of lipase in the milk.  If this happens, it will have a  sour/metallic taste.  I also believe that over time, breast milk loses its nutritional value and immunological properties.  Instead of getting rid of it, you could try to use it in your LO's food/cereal or give a bottle of expressed milk daily (you'd pump in its place) so that it doesn't have to go to waste.  Alternatively, you could see about donating it to a milk bank.
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  • BKHeightsGirlBKHeightsGirl member
    I have thrown out milk that's 3 months old.  It just doesn't sit right with me.  You could do some practice bottle feeding with that milk instead of just dumping it. 
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