Breast milk can be stored in the freezer (at 0° F or colder) for up to 12 months, although using it within 6 months is best.
The Mayo Clinic also explained that the longer you store breast milk in the fridge or freezer, the more it loses its content of vitamin C and the breast milk you store when your baby is younger may not meet the needs they have when they are older.
Some people describe a “soapy” smell or taste in their milk after storage; others say it is a “metallic” or “fishy” or “rancid” odor. Some detect a “sour” or “spoiled” odor or taste. Accompanying these changes are concerns that the milk is no longer good for the baby.
As a rule, the fresher the milk, the more nutrients it contains. In addition, more recent milk contains antibodies for potential bugs floating around out there, so it's good to use milk within a few weeks when possible. However, freshly expressed breastmilk can be stored in the back of the freezer for up to a year.
In the freezer for about 6 months is best; up to 12 months is acceptable. Although freezing keeps food safe almost indefinitely, recommended storage times are important to follow for best quality.
So it's important to follow the safety guidelines for the collection and storage of breast milk. When you freeze breast milk, it loses some of its healthy immune factors, but not all.
Stomach cramps: Babies using spoiled, expired, or lumpy breast milk can cause stomach cramps, bloating, bloating, upset stomach, and fussiness. Food poisoning: Often spoiled breast milk will be contaminated, causing the infant to be infected with bacteria and have diarrhea and vomiting.
This is usually due to fat content, which fluctuates from day to day and even within one nursing or pumping session. Slightly yellow or blue breast milk is usually most visible in frozen or thawed milk.
When milk is still good, it easily mixes with a gentle swirl of the baby bottle. If your breast milk remains separated or chunks float in it after attempting to re-mix, it has likely gone bad and it's a good idea to toss it.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization also recommend exclusive breastfeeding for about the first 6 months, with continued breastfeeding along with introducing appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years of age or longer.
And the World Health Organization (WHO) takes it a step further by recommending that babies be breastfed for 2 years or more, as long as all their nutritional needs are being met.
Almost any mother who wants to start breastfeeding again can. There are only a small number of health conditions that make breastfeeding inadvisable for medical reasons. However, relactation needs to be something you want to do because it is unlikely to succeed if your heart isn't really in it.
You can safely store frozen milk in your freezer for up to 6 months, but it's best if you can use it within 1 month of freezing.
Frozen breast/human milk safely lasts in the freezer for 1 month while preserving most of the nutrients; after 3 months in the freezer, there is a noteworthy decline in concentrations of fats, calories and other macronutrients.
“Breast milk continues to provide substantial amounts of key nutrients well beyond the first year of life, especially protein, fat, and most vitamins.”
Be that as it may, the temperature range of typical domestic freezer is generally −18°C to −20°C and human breastmilk frozen storage at home is not usually pasteurized before freezing, and so the rancid-flavor development of breastmilk due to lipolysis is generally inevitable under the typical frozen-storage regime.
Usually blueish or clear, watery breast milk is indicative of “foremilk.” Foremilk is the first milk that flows at the start of a pumping (or nursing) session and is thinner and lower in fat than the creamier, whiter milk you see at the end of a session.
When frozen, breast milk separates into two components a fat (cream) and a liquid. The fat component can appear as white spots in your frozen milk. You may notice that the fat separation occurs at the top of the container.
“Fat globules” in milk are actually biofilm formation from bacteria, cholesterol/lipids in the milk, and general ductal debris (dead cells), usually in the setting of hyperlactation (oversupply) and dybiosis (imbalance of breastmilk microbiome).
There is currently limited research that supports the safety of refreezing breastmilk as this may introduce further breakdown of nutrients and increases the risk of bacterial growth. At this time, the accepted practice is not to refreeze thawed milk.
In fact, it has been shown that breast milk develops more antibodies and a higher fat content once your little one enters his or her toddler years and is regularly eating complementary foods.
Human milk also provides infants with protection from germs. A baby's immune system is not yet developed. So they don't have many germ-fighting molecules, called antibodies. Breast milk passes the mother's antibodies to the baby.
Antibodies help neutralize the virus, though the levels decrease at the 6-month mark, data indicate. Breast milk from individuals who are vaccinated against COVID-19 provides protection to infants who are too young to be vaccinated, according to the results of a study published in Journal of Perinatology.