Sour Milk?by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger 15 Oct 2006 05:44 PM It's true that even after you've properly stored your milk (and sometimes even before you store it) your breast milk can go sour. It may taste and/or smell sour, metallic or simply rancid. It is not a typical problem but it does happen occasionally: too much lipase. Lipase is an enzyme that breaks down fat. Fat however, it what makes breast milk taste good. Fat actually makes lots of foods taste good for that matter, but I'm getting off topic here. Essentially the lipase is "eating up" all the fat in mom's breast milk and the result is sour tasting milk. While it is more common when a mom tries to store breast milk, it can happen before milk ever leaves the breast--especially if your baby is particular with his tastes. If you have too much lipase in your breast milk, you can still breastfeed! Here is what you should do: Once the milk becomes sour there is no way to salvage it. If your stored milk is sour you should toss it out. However, newly expressed milk can be stored by first scalding the milk. Scalding the milk inactivates the enzyme so it stops the process of fat digestion. To scald milk: *Heat expressed milk to about 180 degrees F, or until you see little bubbles around the edge of the pan. Do NOT heat it to a full rolling boil. *Quickly cool and store milk. Scalding the milk will in fact destroy some of the beneficial properties of your breast milk but not all of them and it still retains enough properties to be more beneficial than formula. How do you know if you have too much lipase? If your milk seems to spoil quickly, or tastes and smells sour. . .too much lipase is probably the culprit. However, breast milk can also seem sour to your baby if you breastfeed right after you've exercised. A good test for too much lipase is to go ahead and scald some expressed milk. After it has cooled, you can see if it still has the sourness. If not, you've probably solved the problem! Related Articles: Increasing Your Milk Supply Through Galactagogues Learn more about Valorie Delp  Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line. Relevantbaby tags User Comments  DK615617 (14620) 28 Feb 2008 08:36 PMSo if you do have too much lipase is there anything that you could do to lessen it? What makes someone have too much? (Especially if you can rule out excercise)  Valorie Delp (49340) 28 Feb 2008 08:42 PMYou don't have to do anything unless your baby doesn't like it and rejects it. It's not harmful to the baby at all. You can boil your milk after you've pumped it and that will deactivate the enzyme so that you can store it and thaw it, etc. As far as I know, there's no real rhyme or reason as to why someone has too much. It's not at all related to exercise. . .the bitterness that is sometimes associated with exercise is from too much lactic acid. . .which naturally builds up while you exercise. However, more recent studies have debated whether or not that's a real issue. . .hmm. . .I sense another blog coming on!  Kara |
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