Goodbye, Mini Milk Stash

I just poured all of my frozen breast milk down the drain. It wasn't a big supply at all, but as all mothers who've pumped know, it represented a lot of effort and dedication.

Last week, I tried giving Joseph some baby cereal. It called for 4 tablespoons of breastmilk, so I thawed out an ounce and a half to use. Joseph took one bite of the cereal and refused to eat any more. I tasted it too see how gross rice cereal is, and It was awful! I mean, really gross. I was not sure it was the milk or the cereal, so I took a sip of the milk to be sure, and literally almost threw up. I have the dreaded soapy milk syndrome.

The milk itself is not spoiled or bad, it just tastes terrible. It's due to an enzyme called Lipase, which is present in all breastmilk. However, a lucky few of us produce too much Lipase, which eats the fats in the breastmilk and makes it taste like soap/vomit when it's been stored (refrigerated or frozen) for an extended period of time. It's not too strange if you think about it - soap itself is commonly made from animal fat.

So anyway, it has tipped us off to why Joseph never took to the bottle! Poor baby! Though he got plenty of tries with fresh milk as well, so it's not entirely the fault of my soapy breastmilk.

I can combat the Lipase by scalding any milk I pump before storing... but I generally only pump a few times a month if I'm going out that day, so I probably won't bother trying to create a frozen supply.