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Key Pointers

  • Curdled or chunky appearance of stored breast milk may indicate spoiled breast milk.
  • A babe refusing to feed, frequent spitting upward, and fever may point the infant has ingested spoilt milk.
  • Frequent hand washing, proper cleaning, and sanitation of breast pump accessories are some ways to prevent breastmilk from getting spoilt.

When you kickoff feeding stored (expressed or pumped) chest milk to your baby, the get-go question that y'all may have is how to know if breast milk has gone bad?

Chest milk contains several nutrients, immunological components, and enzymes. Upon storage, changes in i or more of these components cause alteration in the breast milk'south appearance, smell, and sense of taste.

Several parents report stored chest milk tasting and smelling soapy, while others describe it as metallic. In either case, understanding why these changes occur tin assistance y'all larn the signs that indicate that the milk has gone bad.

Read on to know the signs that tell the breast milk has gone bad and ways to prevent spoilage.

Signs Indicating The Chest Milk Has Gone Bad

Breast milk's taste and smell vary from i mother to another. Therefore, knowing the common signs indicating milk spoilage can prevent you from feeding your baby spoiled milk.

Here are some means yous can decide milk'southward fettle for consumption.

1. Advent

Upon storage, chest milk typically separates into two layers — milk and cream layer. The fat rises to the peak to form the cream layer, while the lesser layer is called the milk layer (1).

When milk is still fit for consumption, a quick swirl causes the layers to dissolve (two). However, if your chest milk appears chunky or maintains separate layers fifty-fifty later on swirling a couple of times, the milk has probable gone bad.

2. Smell

Chest milk's odour could vary among mothers and even across feeding sessions. These changes are based on several factors, such equally the mother'south nutrition and medications. As well, an off or soapy smell is a relatively common occurrence for mothers with high lipase-containing breast milk (3). In such a case, determining spoilage isn't piece of cake. Notwithstanding, a simple test could help.

For the test, freeze a small amount of your breast milk for a week. After a calendar week, thaw the milk and check its odor.

  • If y'all take loftier lipase milk, your milk will likely scent soapy, metallic, or fishy. However, the milk is fit for the baby's consumption. You tin deactivate lipase activity by scalding breast milk.
  • If the milk smells sour or rancid, the milk has undergone chemical oxidation. Discarding such milk is advisable. A diet rich in PUFA or rancid fats and water containing free copper and atomic number 26 ions could crusade oxidation, giving a peculiar smell to breast milk.

3. Gustation

If breast milk tastes rancid or sour, information technology has probable gone bad. You can perform the aforementioned test as in a higher place — store the milk for a calendar week and evaluate the taste changes. Soapy-, metallic-, or fishy-tasting breast milk is likely due to high lipase activity. On the other hand, a sour or rancid sense of taste indicates chemical oxidation.

In general, breast milk stored longer than recommended may point that milk might have gone bad. Freshly pumped or expressed milk stored in the refrigerator for more than than four days or previously frozen and thawed milk stored for more than a solar day are likely to go bad (4).

What Happens When A Infant Consumes Spoiled Breast Milk?

You may sometimes not know that your stored breast milk has gone bad. In such instances, accidental feeding of spoiled milk is possible. A baby may showroom the post-obit signs when they ingest spoiled chest milk.

  1. Refusal to feed: Experts believe that persistent refusal to feed can signify that the babe doesn't like the milk's taste (5). In instance your baby is persistently refusing to consume stored breast milk or acts too fussy while feeding, check the taste of your milk for spoilage. When a breastfeeding baby refuses to feed, it is known every bit a nursing strike that may have several other reasons for it.
  1. Frequent spitting up or vomiting: Babies have sensitive digestive systems. If they consume spoiled breast milk, they are probable to feel gastrointestinal disturbances, such equally diarrhea and airsickness. Some babies may besides feel a lot gassier and laissez passer odd-colored stools. If you find your babe throwing upwardly repeatedly, ofttimes passing watery stools later on the feed, or displaying other digestive issue symptoms, check your chest milk and consult a pediatrician.
  1. Fever: Although uncommon, some babies may develop low to high degree fever afterward ingesting spoiled milk. It usually happens when the milk has bacterial contamination, nigh probable due to improper milk handling and storage. In such cases, babies develop fever a few hours afterward ingesting the stored milk, ofttimes with additional symptoms, such as vomiting and diarrhea.
  1. Severe infection: In rare cases, feeding spoiled milk to babies can lead to life-threatening infections, such as Cronobacter Sakazakii infection (half dozen). This infection can crusade severe wellness bug, such as meningitis and sepsis (vi). It is why the Centers for Disease Command and Prevention (CDC) recommend rigorously following the guidelines for proper handling and storage of homo chest milk (4).

Another symptoms that may arise due to spoiled milk consumption are dehydration leading to excessive sleepiness and inactivity, dark-colored urine, and fewer wet nappies than usual. If you suspect your baby has whatsoever health issues and related signs due to breast milk consumption, consult a pediatrician for guidance.

Tips To Forestall Expressed/Pumped Breast Milk From Spoiling

Below are the recommended guidelines to express or pump and store breast milk to maintain its quality (iv) (8).

  1. Wash your hands and breasts with make clean water and soap before pumping or expressing breast milk.
  1. Adequately clean and sanitize your breast pump and accessories, including the storage containers subsequently every use.
  1. Discard the chest pump and its accessories if you notice a mold in their tubing or the equipment looks worn out.
  1. Tightly close the storage bottle or container's chapeau and then that the milk is rubber from chemical oxidation and absorption of odor from other veggies and fruit.
  1. Thaw breast milk in order of storage, meaning thaw oldest breast milk showtime. Don't refreeze thawed chest milk.
  1. Check stored breast milk for spoilage before feeding it to the baby.  You lot may practice so past checking the taste, colour, and consistency of the breast milk.
  1. Don't freeze the refrigerated milk to extend its storage time. You should keep the milk in the fridge immediately subsequently pumping. The milk tin can stay in the refrigerator at 40°F (iv°C) for four to 6 days. However, practice non move the bottle to the freezer later on six days to extend its storage life. When frozen immediately after pumping, the milk should preferably exist consumed within half dozen months if the freezer is separate from the refrigerator and two weeks if the freezer is within the fridge (ii). E'er place freezer milk at the back of the freezer and never on the door.
  1. Never store breast milk in the door of the refrigerator. Place the milk container at the back of the refrigerator where the temperature is coldest and stable since it is unaffected past the door's opening and closing.
  1. Place the storage container in an insulated cooler bag or cool towel for a few minutes if you cannot immediately place it in the refrigerator. Freshly expressed or pumped breast milk can stay consumable at threescore to 85°F (16 to 29°C) for up to four hours. Remember, the longer the milk stays exterior, the higher the chances of it going rancid.
  1. Go along the chest milk away from direct sunlight, heat, and air until you lot store information technology in the refrigerator or freezer.
  1. Avoid untreated tap water use for cleaning of breast milk storage accessories to forbid milk'southward chemic oxidation during storage. Yous may also restrict supplements rich in unsaturated fats, such as fish oil tablets, if your breast milk is sensitive to oxidation and goes rancid easily.

You invest considerable time and endeavor in pumping breast milk and storing it safely. Mothers do this to feed breast milk to their babies even when they are not effectually. Understanding the signs that indicate chest milk spoilage can aid clinch your efforts are paying off. Besides, it prevents unnecessary milk wastage that often happens when mothers or caregivers misidentify chest milk every bit spoiled.

References:

MomJunction'south articles are written after analyzing the research works of proficient authors and institutions. Our references consist of resource established by regime in their corresponding fields. Yous tin acquire more about the authenticity of the information we present in our editorial policy.

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Julie Matheney did her Master's degree in speech-linguistic communication pathology and has worked on feeding and swallowing disorders for over a decade. As part of a hospital-based rehabilitation team, she works on helping children to feed and eat. Having worked in the NICU, she discovered her passion for breastfeeding and became an IBCLC in 2017. She transitioned out of the hospital... more

Swati Patwal is a clinical nutritionist and toddler mom with over eight years of feel in diverse fields of nutrition. She started her career as a CSR project coordinator for a healthy eating and agile lifestyle project catering to school children. Then she worked as a nutrition faculty and clinical nutrition autobus in different organizations. Her interest in scientific writing... more than