excessive lipase

emriley84

Hi ladies. I'm wondering if anyone is dealing with excess lipase? From what I've read it's rare, but I think that is what is going on with my milk. DS will not drink frozen milk. He cries and cries, will take a few sucks, then cries again. If I give him a fresh bottle and he sucks it down no issues. My frozen milk has a metallic smell and tastes nasty. I tried a few different bags today and they were all like that. Right now I'm mixing it half and half to see if he'll drink it.

I freeze the milk right after I pump, so it doesn't sit around.

Anyway, I have a ridiculous supply and have over 900oz frozen. I am sick to think I might not be able to use it! Anything I can do other than mix it with fresh to mask the taste?

Now, should I start scalding the milk I freeze from now on and see if that helps? Will that stop the nasty taste? Can I save all the milk until the end of the day and scald it all at once, or should it be done after each pump?

Mama-Bear

I have the same issue.  I scalded my milk when I nursed for my twins, not sure if it helped or not.  I would normally just put it in the bottle warmer (I had the Avent and it got crazy hot) so I just did it after each pump.  I would assume you could do it at the end of the day, but I liked to scald it and then cool in the fridge before freezing.

JKB1986

I have excess lipase but my boys both didn't have too much issues taking it. I thought DS2 did but it ended up being he just hated the bottle in general and wanted the bottle to be ridiculously hot. I'd start scalding if I were you. I found that helped my milk to not get so funky in the freezer. The only way to know how long you can keep it fresh before scalding is to test it every couple hours after you pump it. Once it starts smelling/tasting bad you know you need to scald it before that amount of time lapses. I was able to pump and then scald all at once in the evening. Some women's milk goes "bad" within an hour, some not for a day or two. Hopefully you can get LO to take those 900 oz by mixing with fresh. If not, check some milk banks about donating. I tried to donate my stash to Helping Hands Milk Bank and National Milk Bank but both turned me down because I told them I had excess lipase. It really pissed me off how uneducated they were about excess lipase. There was a more local milk bank that I eventually found that didn't have an issue with accepting excess lipase milk but by that time I didn't have a huge stash anymore because my freezer door popped open because it was so full of milk and I lost about 400 oz to defrost.

Sarelnad

Can you do a fridge test?  I have excess lipase in my milk and my milk starts to smell funky after about 48 hrs of being refridgerated (milk is supposed to be good for 5-8 days)  You could stick some in there and smell it every 12ish hours to see when/if it starts to smell. If it starts to turn you probably have excess lipase and need to scald. I scald everything and had to toss about 100oz when I found out.  It was a sad day. I just try to think of it as baby weight I got rid of.  Lol

 

abp51008

I do!!! What I do is thaw the milk under super hot tap water so it scalds it as its thawing. I don't thaw in advance. Literally we scald thaw and then let it get to the right feeding temp and feed him. I discovered this with ds1 and its the same with ds2. It works great!!!

kmc84

I just found out that I have this too. Check out Kellymom.com for more info. You should still be able to donate your milk. Taste freshly pumped milk every few hours during the day to see when your milk starts to change taste. I have about 18 hours before I need to scald. You must scald before freezing as the lipase is still active in the freezer and will break down fat while frozen. The scalding denatures the lipase so the milk is still palatable for LO after storage. Good luck!

numberonemama

I am pretty sure this is what's up with my milk.  I just scalded my first batch the other day and I cooled it in the fridge and it smelled like nothing the next morning.  I did not taste it though.  I tested my milk without scalding it and it was starting to get nasty right away - smell and taste (I tried it at almost two hours).  I'm hoping this is why she refuses the bottle.  Will have the babysitter try this week.  You should be able to donate your milk if you want to since I think it's all mixed together? I may have that wrong. 

RedGiant

I never knew this was something to look out for, and I figured out I have this same issue today! DS refused to eat a bottle earlier this week, and my DH said once he tasted the milk it was very sour/bad tasting (only a few days old in the fridge). Then we tested my frozen stash, and it all was nasty! I was pumping and immediately freezing so I could go out for an all day bachelorette party today - wine tasting, picnic, games, dinner, etc. But since all my frozen stash was gross tasting and DS would not eat it, I had to just pump one extra bottle before I left for him to eat a few hours later, and only could hit up one winery and lunch and then head home.

I'm going to try to scald, divide, and store some, and test it at various intervals to see how long it keeps in the fridge and freezer...good luck!