Briefly Frozen Milk

[saraml13]

I'm traveling for work. I pumped last night and this morning in my hotel and stored my milk in the room's mini-fridge. I got back to the hotel this evening and found that the fridge was on the coldest setting and the milk froze! I travel back home tomorrow and will have the milk in a cooler with ice for at least 10 hours, so I can't keep it frozen. I know the rule of thumb is that milk should be used within 24 hours of being thawed.

What should I do with this milk? Do I have to throw it out? If it thaws out briefly and then I freeze it as soon as I get home will it be ok?

[ellabee]

I've been in a similar situation after traveling for work. Short answer: I personally wouldn't worry about refereezing it.

Some folks will say only to refereeze it if there are crystals still present, and if it is completely thawed... just try to use it for LOs next possible bottle.

As for traveling with milk, I made sure I had as much ice/ice packs as I could in the cooler before leaving. I also swapped out the ice if I could (asked Starbucks etc in the airport or wherever you can stop along the way, if they can refill ziplocks with fresh ice).

[casey]

I've been in that exact situation -- accidental freezing in hotel fridge, long trip back (8 hour flight + airports and driving). I was able to keep the milk mostly frozen in a soft-sided cooler bag. I just replaced once with ice from the plane. I refroze on return home. It was fine.

Agree with using it as quickly as possible if it seems to thaw a good bit.

[somerandomchick]

Using it within 24 hrs of being thawed is mostly under the assumption that frozen milk has been stored awhile. And might've been stored for a bit before being thawed. I think that guidance is mostly that freezing doesn't magically reset the clock on milk going off. I don't think being frozen makes it go bad FASTER than if it had never been frozen.

I might be wary about refreezing the milk (things just get gross when you keep thawing and freezing them!) but I would have 0 qualms about using it within the usual guidelines for fresh milk. Frozen or refrigerated I think the milk will be just fine within a week of being pumped. I would just send it to daycare this week/next week.

[saraml13]

Thanks. I'll use it as soon as possible without refreezing. It was more milk than DS will eat in one day at daycare, but but it will all be used up by Friday. I didn't attempt to keep it frozen because I turned up the fridge temp so that the rest if the milk I pumped wouldn't also freeze.