Adding fresh to frozen?

[@llli*worknpump]

Hi ladies. I hear/read conflicting advice about adding fresh to thawed breastmilk. Mostly I hear that it's not OK (perhaps because if it goes unused then the thawed portion would expire well before the fresh portion?). But I just read this on the Medela website:

"Pumped milk may be added to frozen milk provided it is first chilled and the quantity is less than what is frozen."

If I need to add a little fresh milk to a bottle of mostly thawed bottle and I know DD is going to drink it all - is it OK? What do others do?

Thanks!

[@llli*lllkaren]

I believe the issue is that if you add fresh milk to frozen milk for storage, some of the previously frozen milk will thaw when it comes into contact with the fresh milk, and then refreeze. You don't want the frozen milk to thaw at all unless you're going to use it immediately.

But if you're thawing the milk to feed your baby, I think it would be okay to add some fresh milk to it.

[@llli*worknpump]

Makes sense. Thanks!

[@llli*manitobamommy]

I agree with Karen that the concern is if you had thawed stuff to frozen, it partially thaws the container. So in your case, you should be OK, even if you want to take the more cautious route. You'll have to then treat the whole thing as frozen milk, though, once you've mixed the two.

I just got screened to donate milk and the coordinator of the milk bank said I could do that also, add chilled milk to the frozen stuff. I suppose donated milk gets thawed and refrozen more than once with all the tests and shipping anyway.