Lipase Problem in Breast Milk

Assalamualaikum and Hello!

When my baby turned around 3 month old, she started to reject my frozen breast milk. She was OK with chilled fresh breast milk but not the ones that have been frozen. I tried everything and she accepted some and some she rejected. I ended up giving her what I pumped the day earlier (kais hari ni utk mkn esok :P ). Even when I had to leave her for 2 days, it was not a problem since chilled breast milk can still be used. I started to have headache when I had to leave her for 1 week. Then only I started to read on possibility of why this is happening.

For my case, I believe it is lipase problem. After I thawed my breast milk, I noticed it has some kind of smell. Like sour metallic smell. Lipase is an enzyme that aids in the digestion of fats. When your breast milk contains high content / excess of lipase, it begins to break down the fat in stored breast milk. The fat contributes to the smell and taste which some babies may not like. Some babies are not so choosy and won't mind.

But as what I understood from my research, lipase is actually something beneficial as it helps infant to digest the fat. This allows a good digestion system (I agree as my baby don't really have digestion problem!). The problem is just for us moms who need to express and store our breast milk.

There is a method breastfeeding mommies have suggested to overcome this problem. SCALDING. Scalding is to bring your expressed breast milk to heat just up to it gets bubble a bit around the pan then quickly turn your stove off and let it cool before you freeze it.

For those who already have frozen breast milk that did not go through scalding because you just found out of the problem, you may want to try mixing the frozen breast milk with fresh expressed breast milk / chilled breast milk. Try 10% frozen + 90% chilled/fresh at 1st and try to increase the amount of frozen breast milk on every attempt. See on which percentage can your baby accept. And this can be your way forward. At least you can still use your frozen breast milk. If this still cannot work, you can always give your baby milk bath spa!

I hope this info can be beneficial for those mommies in the same situation like I was. I hope to overcome this as well for my next baby. Hopefully my next baby won't be so choosy like my 1st :P

That 'I & 'Me',
Hayfa