5 week old suddenly seems to not like the taste of my expressed breast milk

[jennifer86]

5 week old DS is currently fed mainly with expressed breast milk (due to not gaining weight in first few weeks we had to switch to this from breastfeeding as he would always be still hungry after breastfeeding for over 40 mins). He has the occasional formula top up when we have ran out of EBM. This morning he is pulling faces when trying to feed, as though he doesn't like the taste. He will reluctantly take the milk if I leave the teat in his mouth for a few more seconds, but has only taken 30-60mls each feed overnight and this morning (normally takes 110-160 each feed). He is showing signs of hunger when I have tried to feed him. Anyone had experience of this? Is it something I have eaten?? Can he taste the steriliser? (does smell a little soapy or something) Milk is stored in the fridge for up to 6hrs before it is given so I don't think it can be going off in that time. Any advice much appreciated! Thanks

Have you smelt or tasted it? Sometimes expressed milk goes soapy. It's easily corrected by scalding before freezing.

A solution would be to return to direct bf. Being hungry after forty mins bf is absolutely normal - would this be an option for you?

Are you still breastfeeding? If so can you just continue with that now and feed on demand? Leave the bottles.

Maybe it's the bottle he doesn't like. I know he's been used to it but they can quickly change their mind.

Btw I agree that being hungry even after 40 m of BFing can be normal. During a growth spurt they will feed for even longer and still need another feed a few mins later!

Thanks for the replies. I'm nervous about going back to exclusively BF because he was still well under his birthweight at 2 weeks, and his feeding was a real issue at that time. That's when we started the current system, he immediately gained 9oz in 3 days and was a lot more settled, which both suggested to me that he really wasn't getting enough milk when exclusively BF. I have kept the occasional BF going, though (1 or 2 each day) so am going to try upping this as the feeds do seem to be more effective than they were (as in he goes about 2hrs before being hungry again, rather than immediately!) although I do accept that he may have been trying to have a growth spurt when hungry immediately after a feed. Thanks again.

Milk going soapy can mean excess lipase in your milk. It doesn't mean the milk is "bad", it won't make LO sick - it's more that it's being broken down by its own enzymes very quickly. But unfortunately it does make it smell and taste horrid and many babies aren't keen esp once they get older and more "discerning".

I have this issue though luckily my milk lasts for c 24 hours before going soapy, sounds like yours is a lot quicker...

You can do a taste test to see how long your milk lasts before going soapy - taste some ebm at say 1 hour intervals and note when it starts tasting nasty. then try to use your ebm within that time (tricky I know).

as tiktok says, scalding the ebm straight after expressing will stop it going soapy. Freezing unfortunately doesn't help though.

obviously returning to direct BF is best though if you can manage it, for all sorts of reasons!