How to Combat Excess Lipase in Breast Milk

Is your baby Refusing Milk?

Lipase is an enzyme that helps digest fat. This enzyme is found in breast milk and it is very valuable as it helps your baby digest breast milk. If you have an excess of lipase in your milk, the enzime will start breaking down the fat in it faster, even before it is consumed by your baby.

What happens if I have excess lipase in my breast milk?

Lipase can act faster depending on the levels of the enzyme in your milk. The enzime will affect the smell and taste of your milk, which will be one or many of the following: sour, rancid, soapy and / or metallic.
If your baby is refusing to take his/ her bottle, there may be excess lipase affecting your milk’s taste.

How do I know if there is excess lipase in my breast milk?

Talk to your physician or lactation consultant about your concerns and they will tell you how to proceed in your specific case.

One indication that you may have excess lipase in your breast milk is the smell and/ or taste of your expressed milk. Try leaving your breast milk at room temperature and taste/ smell it regularly to understand at what point it starts to change in smell and flavour.

This timing is important as it will give you a reference of how long you can keep your milk and feed it to your baby before it goes bad.

According to the CDC human breast milk can remain at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours, which means you have that amount of time to do the test before the milk goes bad. Remember to cover your container and keep it as cool as possible.

You may be thinking, what if I freeze my breast milk immediately after expressing it? Unfortunately, that won’t stop lipase from acting; which means you could end up with a freezer full of milk containers that smell.

Solutions to lipase in breast milk

You can “rescue” your breast milk by scalding it. It is recommended you scald your milk as soon as you express it, or before lipase starts breaking it down. In order to know how much time you have until lipase starts acting, we recommend you do the explained in the section above, as it can be different for different women.

We have found 2 great blogs that have information about this and we have summarised them below.

To scald your breast milk you will need the following:

– A bottle warmer without an auto-shut off feature
– An aluminium bottle
– A digital stainless steel thermometer
– A container filled with water and ice (any container you may have at home)

The full kit will cost you approx. $70 depending on what products you choose

Product PhotoKit optionsDescriptionNo. of Amazon ReviewsRatingPriceCheck Out on Amazon.com
Anpro DT-7 Instant Read Digital Cooking Thermometer
With Long Probe for Milk, Meat, Candy, BBQ and Bath Water. Temperature range from -58°F to +572°F and -50°C to +300°C430+
[usr 4.3]$Check out on Amazon.com

Habor Digital Stainless Cooking Thermometer
Food, Meat, Grill, BBQ, Milk, and Bath Water - Long Probe, Anti-Corrosion. Range:
-58°F to 572°F (-50ºC to 300ºC)
1,900+
[usr 4.2]$Check Out on Amazon.com

Taylor Precision Products Commercial Waterproof Digital Thermometer
Digital - waterproof. Range in degrees: -40°F to 450°F and -40°C to 230°C1,100+[usr 3.9]$$Check out on Amazon.com
Pura Kiki 11-Ounce Stainless Steel Infant Bottle
11 Ounce with Medium Flow Nipple. 100% plastic free
100+[usr 4.3]$$Check Out on Amazon.com
Thinkbaby Stainless Steel Baby Bottle
Silver, 9 Ounce30+[usr 3.7]$$$Check out on Amazon.com

Munchkin Time Saver bottle warmer
Steam-heat. Does not feature auto-shut off
190+
[usr 3.7]$$Check Out on Amazon.com

Philips Avent Bottle Warmer
Water bath. Does not feature auto-shut off
400+[usr 3.7]$$Check Out on Amazon.com

Instructions to Scald Milk

  1. Set up your bottle warmer and turn it on

2. Put the aluminium bottle in the bottle warmer with the thermometer

3. Fill an empty container with water and ice

4. Once the thermometer marks 175-180 F (approx. 80ºC), take the bottle out of the bottle warmer and place it in the container filled with water and ice

5. Wait until your milk is cool to store it

After scalding your milk some of the nutritional values will be lost, however, it may be better to do this process instead of changing to formula altogether.
If your milk takes 12 to 24 hours to change in taste, you can still feed it to your baby that same day if you express before you go to work. Scalding your milk may not be necessary in your case.

If you want to build up your freezer stash, you will probably need to scald your milk as the low temperatures in the freezer don’t stop the process of lipase breaking down the milk.
If you would like to review the reference blogs to this article, don’t miss the video from ManD627 and also the blog from the San Diego Breastfeeding Centre LLC.

Finally, if you think you may have lipase in your breast milk, we would advise you contact either your physician or your lactation consultant for advice. This website does not provide medical advice, only information based on how other moms have dealt with the same issue.
We hope this article was helpful guide around how to deal with excess lipase in your breast milk.

 

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