We sure have discussed this a lot.  I agree, yeast is a normal part of the
body flora and there are antifungal properties in human milk.  If the
antifungal properties were enough to protect mom and baby we would not be
dealing with thrush in the first place.  The thrush, in my mind signifies
that there is probably some compromise in the immune system to begin with
and I would be quite uncomfortable saving yeasty milk in the freezer and
reintroducing a large bolus of the yeast later.

My recommendations are to err on the side of safety which, to me, is not to
freeze milk collected during a yeast infection.  This said, I certainly do
not want mom's feeding formula, a dead substance and, in my mind, a bigger
risk for yeast.  Nearly all of the moms that I work with have regular
separation from the baby and either formula or frozen milk is a part of
baby's diet.  If mom does not have time/supply enough to replace yeasty
milk, I encourage her to scald the milk before use.  This will kill many of
the anti-infective properties, I realize, but yeast will not survive the
scalding though either.  These babies get much of the milk fresh and will
get the anti-infective properties from the fresh milk, so the loss in the
scalded milk should be less of the risk than the yeast with a dyad that may
still be susceptible to yeast.

I sure wish we had some evidence on which to base this practice!!!

Linda L Pohl, IBCLC
Phoenix AZ

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