To make frozen breast milk taste better, mix it with fresh milk, serve it chilled, or add a drop of alcohol-free vanilla extract (for babies over 6 months) to mask soapy/metallic flavors from high lipase; the best preventive is scalding milk right after pumping to deactivate the enzyme before freezing.
2. Scalding your milk will stop the bad taste from coming. If you scald the milk and then freeze it, it should taste ok when you thaw it out later.
Some women's breast milk turns sour in the freezer due to high levels of the enzyme lipase, which breaks down milk fats even when frozen. This is a natural process called lipolysis and is not harmful, though it can give the milk a soapy or metallic taste that some babies dislike.
Background: Infant refusal to feed previously frozen human milk is thought possibly attributable to lipase, an enzyme that cleaves fatty acids from milk triglycerides potentially changing the taste of the milk.
Stored milk has time for the lipase to take effect resulting in changes to taste and smell. Some women report a soapy or metallic smell while others notice a distinctly fishy whiff.
Scald your breastmilk to reduce high lipase.
Heat until it reaches 180 F, you'll see little bubbles around the edge of the milk in the pan (do not boil!). Once you reach this temp, remove the milk from the heat, cool and store as quickly as possible.
The Academy of American Pediatrics assures that even though high lipase milk may have an unpleasant odor and even an unpleasant taste, it's not unhealthy for babies to drink. It doesn't cause upset tummies, introduce unhealthy bacteria, or alter the nutritional content of the breast milk.
The "4-4-4 rule" for breast milk is a simple storage guideline: fresh milk is good for 4 hours at room temperature (up to 77°F/25°C), for 4 days in the refrigerator (39°F/4°C or colder), and up to 4-6 months (or longer) in a standard freezer (0°F/-18°C). It's a handy mnemonic, though some organizations like the CDC recommend up to 6 months in the freezer and the AAP up to 9 months, with deeper freezers offering even longer storage.
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Some moms may notice that their expressed breast milk has a soapy or metallic smell and taste. This is often due to high lipase activity in the milk.
Symptoms include:
Storage of breast milk
Some mothers have found that the soapy or sour smell appears to be more apparent once breast milk has been stored in the refrigerator or freezer. Some describe a “rancid” smell. Theories for stored breast milk tasting or smelling sour or rancid include: Lipase activity during storage.
If your baby is at least 6 months old, adding one to two drops of alcohol free vanilla extract per ounce of breastmilk can help improve the taste of high lipase breastmilk. You can save the frozen milk in a deep freezer until your baby is this age if they have been rejecting it.
If they drink enough of it, they may end up getting an upset stomach. The upset stomach may present itself as stomach cramps, bloating, squirming, rejecting breastfeeding, and general fussiness. Sometimes they will end up vomiting up the milk. If the baby does develop symptoms, it usually doesn't last long.
If your baby is over 6 months old, you may add drops of alcohol-free vanilla flavoring to improve the taste and hopefully get baby to accept the milk. Disclaimer: Ask your baby's healthcare provider before adding vanilla to your breast milk, especially if baby is under 6 months old.
For your frozen stash you can try adding vanilla flavoring non alcoholic and see if baby will drink it. You can save it and add it to purees.
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Breast milk does not need to be warmed. It can be served room temperature or cold.
At around 6 weeks, many moms introduce the pump and follow the Magic 8 method — pumping 8 times in 24 hours to help build and maintain milk supply.
Common Breast Milk Storage Mistakes to Avoid
(If you're wondering whether babies can smell breast milk at night, the answer is yes!) In addition, breast milk is higher in fat content during this nighttime hours, too, which is great for your little one's fast-developing brain.
How can you tell if you have high lipase breast milk?
Maybe they just burped, and something came up that gave them a sour face? Or baby started to move their tongue in and out and then you notice them swallow hard and fuss a little bit? All these babies are likely experiencing infant reflux.