Why does all of my expressed milk taste gone off?

[hermionegrange]

I have been exclusively breast feeding my baby since birth, he is now 6 weeks. I was using a Hakka pump to collect let down as I have over supply, and then freezing the milk straight away.

DH offered to give baby his first bottle today, so I could get some sleep. All of the milk I've taken out of the freezer is soapy and horrible and tastes gone off. Why might this be?

High lipase in your milk. I think you need to scald the milk before freezing to stop it. Lots of advice in breastfeeding groups on Facebook

It’ll be high levels of lipase (an enzyme) in your milk. It’s not harmful at all but of course baby might not like it.

I had this issue too. It’s due to high lipase, an enzyme in the milk. If there are high levels, it breaks down the fats quickly and alters the taste. It’s fine to feed it if baby accepts it. If not, you need to scald the milk before freezing. Heat it in a small pan until not quite boiling (tiny bubbles at the edges) then cool and freeze. It will stop it getting the soapy taste. (Small amounts of milk boil very quickly in a pan, watch it closely!)

I had the same and unfortunately scalding it didn’t work either and my baby wouldn’t drink it so it all got wasted.

It’s a normal variant of breastmilk, you don’t need to do anything to it, (please don’t “scald” your expressed milk, you’ll alter the constituents of the milk, decreasing the nutritional content) the majority of babies don’t even notice the taste.

Thank you!