Moms are very kind to their children, especially to newborns. This is the period when the child is still not able to explain what is wrong, and the mother needs to be extremely careful in order to respond in time to the needs of the baby. The issue of breastfeeding today does not cause any discussion on the topic: to breastfeed or not to breastfeed? In the minds of modern mothers, there is a clear understanding of what breast milk is for the baby. This understanding came from the knowledge and understanding of biological processes due to the large number of written articles and footage on this subject.
Briefly about the benefits of breast milk
Scientists were able to prove the benefits of breast milk for babies, the whole thing is in the immune system. A small person who has come to the world does not yet have enough internal resources to deal with the aggressive effects of the environment, his immunity is weak. In the early stages of life, mother's milk helps strengthen the protective mechanisms of the newborn. The benefits of breast milk became apparent to modern mothers, and they even figured out how to freeze breast milk, which undoubtedly succeeded. Not a single mixture today can become a 100% alternative to a natural product. Why? Yes, because mother's milk can protect a child from almost all types of infections. Since a product such as milk quickly deteriorates, it became necessary to come up with ways to store it. In this article we will tell you how to freeze breast milk, how to store it so that it does not lose its properties and does not deteriorate.
Why store breast milk if you can feed your baby fresh?
It would seem - here is mom, here is the child. What problems can be with feeding, why these blanks? But such a need arose out of the blue, it was due to the experience of many mothers who had to deal with unusual situations. Now it’s hard to say who first came up with the idea of freezing breast milk in a bottle, but many women have successfully practiced this experience. It is worth saying that it is not only frozen, but simply stored in the refrigerator (a very short time). Why is this needed?
- Health problems. Nobody expects this, but it does happen sometimes. A nursing mother gets sick and has to take medications that may be unsafe for the baby. In this case, you can feed the child a frozen product until health is restored.
-Long absence is a good reason. Urgent business trip, not tolerating the end of maternity leave, the need for treatment in a hospital, etc. There can be many reasons and you need to be prepared for such situations.
- Excess milk. It happens that the child does not need so much food that his mother is able to provide, and the excess simply spills out. When the lactation period ends, and this sometimes happens very unpredictably and unexpectedly, women think that they would like to feed the baby longer, but this is already impossible. The problem is solved by those women who managed to think in time about how to freeze breast milk. What it needs to be stored in and how to freeze it properly are the main issues when preparing milk for the future.
Is it possible to freeze milk, and what beneficial substances will remain in it after such processing?
Parents will not give their children products that they are not sure about. So on the issue of the quality of frozen milk, you need to dot all the "i". It is not worth doing experiments on your own, pediatricians have long researched this issue and approved this method of storing perishable product. You can choose a convenient option for yourself in which to freeze breast milk and make it in every possible case, because useful unique properties are preserved almost completely. Such a stock can be stored for several months.
You need to freeze milk. Where to start?
If it is possible to freeze a product, why not? Now the only question is how to freeze breast milk at home. Some maternity hospitals have cans of milk, there this process is worked out, but what to do at home? There is nothing complicated in this process; you need to create your own personal milk bank. It will help to solve small everyday issues that arise in the life of a young mother, whether it's going to the store or passing an exam. A milk bank is nothing more than a personal supply of milk stored in special bags, plastic bottles or other suitable containers.
Properly organized collection of breast milk
You can collect milk at any time, but it is advisable not to do this before you need to leave somewhere. The mother is worried about separation and this can provoke a decrease in milk, then stocking it up for the future will not work. In other cases, there are no restrictions. Expression should be carried out when the child has already eaten, mom is healthy, and containers for freezing are available. How can you freeze breast milk? In baby bottles, food plastic bags, glass vessels, not filling them to the end, so that they do not burst in the freezer after expanding the liquid. All containers must be tightly closed.
How to decant to collect milk for freezing?
This work can be done as quickly as possible with the help of a breast pump. The process itself is short-lived, less traumatic than pumping by hand. But there are women who are more comfortable doing this procedure manually. The selected method has no effect on the result. How to freeze breast milk is also not a fundamental question - to whom it is convenient.
The main thing is to wash your hands, sterilize the dishes for storage, if it is reusable (there are special sterile bags for collecting milk), and the breast pump itself. For sterilization, you can use a microwave or boiling. It is advisable to immediately express milk in the container in which it will be stored. Having done such simple actions, you can freeze breast milk without any problems. Mom reviews very convincingly prove that this is a very practical method.
Decided on a container - put stocks in the freezer
Some companies produce disposable bags that are designed specifically for storing breast milk. They are compact and do not take up much space. If it is hard plastic or glass, then the containers should be designed for baby food. Do not forget about the marking. It is very important to indicate the date when the milk was frozen. What freezing breast milk is for you to decide. Plastic and glass can be reused, and the bags will have to be thrown away.
Particular attention should be paid to freezing and storage.
Raw materials need to be frozen in small portions, because after thawing everything that the child does not eat will need to be poured. You can make blanks of different volumes and use if necessary for feeding or give as a full portion. It may be that you need to freeze breast milk after the refrigerator. In this case, it is better to freeze it in the same bowl in which it stood in the refrigerator for no more than a day. If it needs to be transferred to another dish, then sterile containers should be used. Also, before freezing, you need to make sure that it does not deteriorate, has a pleasant smell and color.
When freezing, all liquids expand, this should be remembered when filling containers and leave free space. Do not add fresh milk to frozen milk, even if there is still space left in the container, because fresh milk will defrost part of the frozen milk and, when re-frozen, it will lose its beneficial properties. Different servings of milk collected in one day can be stored in one container. These are the basic tips on how to freeze breast milk at home in bags, in glass and plastic containers.
Features of storing breast milk in the freezer
When it comes to freezing conventional products, you may not be so scrupulous, but you should be very responsible for baby food.
In different sources you can find some differences, here it is worth paying attention to why milk is stored. There are blanks for premature babies, and there are just in milk cans. But there may be differences due to the fact that different refrigerators are used. At home, you can follow simple recommendations and successfully store a valuable product for 6 months or more.
Some valuable tips for caring mothers
If you decide to freeze breast milk in a container, then try to remove excess air from it. All containers should be stored closer to the rear wall, because if you place them on the door or close to the door, then every time you open the freezer, the product will be exposed to temperature extremes.
If feeding is supposed to be a prepared product during the day or the next day, then it is better not to freeze it. When stored in a refrigerator, it will retain more nutrients.
If the product has already been thawed, it must not be frozen again. If necessary, it can still be kept in the refrigerator, but not more than a day.
How to defrost milk in order to preserve all the beneficial substances in it?
If you intend to feed your child with blanks, it is better to get one container in advance and transfer it to the refrigerator so that thawing proceeds gradually. If there is no time to wait, then you can hold the bag or container under a stream of warm water. Next, you need to bring the dish in a water bath to the desired temperature. Mommy’s milk has the same temperature as the body, so before feeding the baby, you need to check the degree of heating on the wrist.
Heated milk, which the child has not finished eating, needs to be poured out; there is no sense in storing it anymore.
You can’t use a microwave for warming, otherwise all your painstaking work on preparation and storage will go down the drain. Most of the beneficial substances from the effects of radio waves will simply collapse.
As a child grows up, his needs for the amount of different vitamins and minerals change, and the composition of milk also changes. Therefore, an ideal option would be to quickly use the blanks so that the baby gets fresh servings. But if it was possible to save a lot of milk until the time when normal feeding is already impossible, then such reserves will be worth its weight in gold. No baby food can replace breastfeeding.
What does fresh milk look like and what happens to it if it is frozen?
Fresh milk has a pleasant sweetish smell. It may have a white or slightly cream color, depending on the fat content. It has a sweet taste. You can choose at your discretion what to freeze breast milk at home, but after defrosting a specific smell may appear. This is the norm, it does not affect the quality of the product. In rare cases, it happens that because of this smell, the baby refuses to drink it.
After decantation, the liquid looks uniform. If you leave it like that, then after a while it will be possible to notice that it has stratified: the fat part rises, and the liquid part remains below. If you shake it in a bowl, then it will become homogeneous again.
If you suddenly find that the product has a sour taste or smell, you need to throw it away. This indicates that the workpiece is gone, it is impossible to give it to the baby.
