Excess lipase and returning to work

[shopaholic85]

Hi all,

I am returning to work for 2 days a week in September when my baby will be 9 months. She is 7 months now and still breast fed on demand throughout the day and night. We are doing BLW and she has taken to it really well, but hasn't started swallowing anything yet, but will sip water at meal times.

I have worked two KIT days so far (7-5pm). I am pretty sure I have excess lipase in my milk as my LO refused the expressed milk I had left, except a small amount of milk I expressed just before leaving for work. All the milk smelt sour and tasted bitter even though they had been expressed at different times and stored correctly. She was offered food but didn't eat anything (normal), refused formula, but had sips of water throughout the day. So on both days she was starving by the time I returned home and was then on the breast every hour for the rest of the evening making up for it.

I don't mind the reverse cycling, but what does that mean for the other days when I am not working? I want to continue exclusively breast feeding until she is 1, but with expressed milk not an option, I am not sure what to do. I'm also not keen on having to express at work to keep up my supply if I am just dumping the milk afterwards.

Thank you

[Dragonfree]

I can't comment about excess lipase as I've not heard of it, but if your LO continues to refuse expressed milk, it may possible to donate it. That has the added bonus of being tested (although I don't know what for) before they use it, so you'd find out if there are any issues or if your LO is just being a fusspot.

[McBaby]

You can scald the milk before storing it. It stops it tasting and smelling bad from the lipase (not that it help either of my dds to drink the stuff they both hated bottles).

[shopaholic85]

Thanks both,

I might try scalding the milk and see how I get on.

[InDubiousBattle]

What childcare will you be using? You may find that she will take a bottle for a cm/nursery staff. By then she should be eating much more and bf less so you probably won't need to worry about it (my dd gave up on bf during the day completely around 9 nonths). Your supply should be robust so you can just bf on your non working days. Have you tried formula?

[Callamia]

I had the lipase problem. Milk lasted no more than a month in the freezer, and about a day or so in the fridge. I tried scalding, but it was such an extra faff that I didn't need - freezing in small batches was pretty much the best option for us.

[shopaholic85]

My DH will have her for one day and she'll go to a childmimder for one day. I'm probably not going to bother expressing milk and just leave formula, which I'm betting she won't drink. Because I'll still be breastfeeding on the other days, I probably won't be able to get away with not expressing at work..

[newbian]

I never figured out if I really had excess lipase or not, but for months DD would never drink my milk if it was frozen first. She only drank fresh which lasted 3-4 days in the fridge maximum. However around 12 months she stopped caring and drank anything!

The only issue is that formula and BM taste really different - in fact your baby is more likely to drink lipase-y BM than formula if those are the only choices.

You can continue to express the days you go to work and put it into her food, I did that with a lot of defrosted BM and she never minded it when added to cereal or pureed fruit/veg.

[Teaformeplease]

Scalding milk only takes a few minutes. Keep expressed milk in the fridge at work (they should provide you with somewhere) and when you get home heat it in a saucepan until it starts to bubble ( you can get a cheap digital thermometer if you want - recommended temperature was about 62 degrees Celsius if I remember correctly). Poor the milk into bottles and place the bottles into cold water to cool quickly. Store in the fridge or freezer.

[Battenburg1978]

You might find that it's not so much of a problem. My daughter is in full time nursery 5 days a week and totally refuses any type of milk in a bottle/cup (expressed/formula). She's 7 months but basically has 1 or 2 good breastfeeds in the morning, eats solids and sips water from her sippycup at nursery, then a huge breastfeed when we get home, another before bed and 1-2 during the night. I feed on demand on the weekend. I don't have to pump at work (I always make sure I'm wearing breast pads just in case) - the supply seems to have adjusted. It is a bit tingly come pickup time though! I thought she'd cave at nursery and take formula but not yet! She does eat plenty of solids though which helps.