So Kenya power has decided to ration your electricity……..Heavy downpour last night fell trees on the powerlines……Transformer got clobbered last night………… tokens depleted without your notice. I know the worries and fears of not having electric power when your freezer is fully stocked with expressed milk. The main concern mainly being having the frozen milk thaw. You know very well that thawed breast milk can never be refrozen as its potential poison for the baby consumption. The thought of every single effort you have inculcated in expressing all those litres of liquid gold and the loss of it can be devastating. So the big question is, how do you prevent your expressed milk from thawing?
The most important thing to note is that as long as there are still some ice crystals in the milk, it is still considered frozen and can either be consumed or returned back to a working freezer. Here are few tips to help keep milk fresh longer:
- Keep your freezer closed- Avoid opening the freezer during power outages to ensure that it temperatures inside remain as low as possible.
- Keep the freezer full. A full freezer retains cold temperature better than an empty one. Many a times Kenya power give warnings in the newspaper on areas that will experience power rationing. When its your areas turn, fill water in containers the day before to fill up empty space. This will provide more ice for your milk to stay cooler and frozen for longer.
- Use a generator if you have access to one.
- Make use of your neighbor. Sometimes power goes off in some lines/ phases. As you await repair, take the milk to your neighbor or even the freezer. I have done this before. If you think this is a big hustle, try purchasing formula milk!!!!!!
