Help, milk got into the motor...why??

[susannah14]

Hello ladies, I was pumping this morning and heard a loud gurgling and looked down to see milk inside one of the tubes. I quickly disconnected the tubes from the motor and milk started shooting out of the motor where the tubes connect!! I have no idea why this happened, there was only a half ounce in the bottle where the milk got in the tube, and I was standing upright. Why would the milk have gone into the tube instead of into the bottle?

I have a Medela PISA, do I just need to follow the instructions on their website for cleaning behind the faceplate, or is there more to it since the milk got into the motor? (At least I'm assuming it did since milk was spurting out the holes?)

Thanks a million!

 

[lynnikins]

id be calling Melda's helpline

 

[_Lexi_]

When I was looking into buying a medela swing, it says that their systems are 'open systems', so sometimes milk can get into the motor. This is what put me off buying one as there's no way to sterilise inside the motor.

 

[susannah14]

Thanks, I am going to call, when I posted this they didn't open for another 2 hours, lol and I'm impatient! Was wondering if this had happened to anyone else before...

UPDATE: I called, and they told me that milk can't make it all the way into the motor of the Medela PISA. After taking off the faceplat, I can see why. There is a big white diaphragm that puffs in and out and covers the motor. It was covered in milk so I just had to wipe it off. Still not sure why it happened, but they are sending me replacement tubing. Learning experience!

 

[kalyrra]

I had milk get into the tubes at least twice. Thankfully, I caught it before it got to the diaphragm... but if you look in the connections, it's open to allow air to suck in behind where the milk goes down into the bottle. Normally, the milk never touches this area.

What I think happened with me was that I let down super fast on my left side, and I believe the little white membrane had either gotten stuck or just couldn't keep up and the milk built up quite quickly and backed up into that small area and up into the tube.

 

[susannah14]

I had milk get into the tubes at least twice. Thankfully, I caught it before it got to the diaphragm... but if you look in the connections, it's open to allow air to suck in behind where the milk goes down into the bottle. Normally, the milk never touches this area.

What I think happened with me was that I let down super fast on my left side, and I believe the little white membrane had either gotten stuck or just couldn't keep up and the milk built up quite quickly and backed up into that small area and up into the tube.

Maybe that's what happened to me. I don't think I'd cleaned the white membrane in at least a day so maybe it was sticky. Oops