After giving birth, mothers may be separated from their babies for a short period of time for different reasons. Especially in our country where the maternity leave is 4 months, mothers may have to return to work when their babies are about 2-3 months old. So, will babies be deprived of breast milk in this case?
Use Breast Pumps / Don’t Deprive Your Baby of Breast Milk!
It is necessary to express milk regularly and continuously, both to prevent the cessation of breastfeeding and to ensure that the baby receives breast milk, which is its main food for the first six months. We can list what you need for this as follows:
- Breast pump for expressing milk
- Milk storage bags or breast milk storage bottles for storing milk
You expressed the milk and put it in a breast milk storage bag or container. Then you put it in the freezer. But how should frozen breast milk be thawed? Considering the appropriate breast milk storage conditions, you should make your stored milk available to your baby with the most ideal thawing and warming method. If a caregiver, helper or grandmother will do this for you, you should provide them with detailed and accurate information.
How to thaw frozen breast milk and how to warm breast milk?
- To haw or warm frozen breast milk, fill a bowl with hot or warm water and place the bag/bottle with frozen breast milk in it.
- Never put breast milk on a fire or boil it to warm it up. Boiling will damage the nutrients in the milk.
- When thawing frozen breast milk, cream and milk layers may form on top of the milk. Before testing the temperature, the breast milk should be stirred in a gentle circular motion to spread the temperature evenly.
- Gentle stirring will ensure that the cream in the milk disperses.
- Be careful not to agitate the milk too quickly, as this can damage the live components in the breast milk.
- Do not use a microwave oven to heat breast milk.
How should thawed breast milk be preserved?
There are two clear rules. Pay close attention to them.
- Pre-frozen milk can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours after thawing.
- Breast milk must not be frozen again!
Why does breast milk smell bad?
In very rare cases, breast milk may smell bad. Some mothers who carefully express and freeze their milk may be upset because they think their milk has spoiled. This may be due to the high lipase content of your milk. Depending on the lipase level, you may also smell the same odor after the breast milk has been cooled in the refrigerator. It should be noted that lipase-induced bad odor in breast milk is not very common. In addition, you can review our article“My milk smells, what should I do?”that we have prepared for you.
How Can You Tell If Breast Milk Has Spoiled?
To check whether breast milk has spoiled, we recommend boiling a small amount and checking whether it has curdled.
The taste and smell of milk may also change periodically depending on what mothers eat. This is nothing to worry about. If your baby drinks this milk, do not intervene at all. But if your baby has difficulty drinking this smelly milk, you can mix it with different foods you give your baby.