Lipase - help!!

el_twirpo

we've been giving DS a bottle of expressed milk a day since a week old. no problems until this past week. i stopped putting milk fresh in the fridge and storing it immediately in the freezer to start a stash (i go back to work in a month). well, we've just started giving a bottle a day from the frozen and he refuses it.

smelling and tasting today's milk, it was soapy and awful. it also looks funny - doesn't have the fat thickness that i'm used to seeing, which all signs point to lipase.

is there anything i can do to salvage the 200 oz i've pumped/frozen these last few weeks or do they need to be tossed, and i have to start scalding milk and re-starting my stash?

i'm so frustrated! 

el_twirpo

i should also add that i won't be able to scald the milk when i go back to work. so what do you working ladies with lipase issues do to make sure everything being pumped is usable?

august8080

Could you help him gradually get used to it? Like do an 80/20 mix of fresh/frozen so the taste isn't so drastically different and then gradually change the ratio, kind of like people do with BM/formula. By the time you have to give him only frozen, hopefully, he'd be ok with the taste.

I had a lot of lipase too and threw out a ton of milk thinking it was rotten before I realized what was going on.

el_twirpo

august8080:

Could you help him gradually get used to it? Like do an 80/20 mix of fresh/frozen so the taste isn't so drastically different and then gradually change the ratio, kind of like people do with BM/formula. By the time you have to give him only frozen, hopefully, he'd be ok with the taste.

I had a lot of lipase too and threw out a ton of milk thinking it was rotten before I realized what was going on.

i'll try that out. guess i need to go pump some fresh milk some time today since everything's in the freezer already. i was reading that fresh milk also starts to break down from the lipase. does that mean i have just a few hours before the fresh tastes bad too? or more time? 

rssnlvr

Would it make a difference to cool it in the fridge before freezing it? I know sources vary on this, but I've read that you shouldn't go straight from fresh to frozen.

el_twirpo

rssnlvr:

Would it make a difference to cool it in the fridge before freezing it? I know sources vary on this, but I've read that you shouldn't go straight from fresh to frozen.

i read that the lipase starts to break down the fat as soon as the milk starts to cool. so it sounds like it's the length of time (whether refrigerated or frozen) that determines how much of the fat gets broken down. 

L L CG

DO NOT throw out the milk.  How long has he been refusing it?  DD went through a couple of days where she refused it as well.  She also refused freshly pumped milk a couple of times and it had nothing to do with lipase.  I think pp's idea of mixing it is a good idea.  For a good while my freshly pumped milk smelled like ivory soap.  DD drank it just fine.

el_twirpo

L L CG:

DO NOT throw out the milk.  How long has he been refusing it?  DD went through a couple of days where she refused it as well.  She also refused freshly pumped milk a couple of times and it had nothing to do with lipase.  I think pp's idea of mixing it is a good idea.  For a good while my freshly pumped milk smelled like ivory soap.  DD drank it just fine.

he's been refusing the bottle with refrigerated fresh a couple days last week, so that milk was probably reaching 5 days old. yesterday and today were the first times we pulled out the frozen. he begrudgingly ate yesterday's after waiting another hour to eat. today, he cried so hard, he went back to sleep. then i tried again with another frozen bag when he woke up (so 6 hours total without eating), and he wailed at me. i finally gave him the boob.

L L CG

el_twirpo:

L L CG:

DO NOT throw out the milk.  How long has he been refusing it?  DD went through a couple of days where she refused it as well.  She also refused freshly pumped milk a couple of times and it had nothing to do with lipase.  I think pp's idea of mixing it is a good idea.  For a good while my freshly pumped milk smelled like ivory soap.  DD drank it just fine.

he's been refusing the bottle with refrigerated fresh a couple days last week, so that milk was probably reaching 5 days old. yesterday and today were the first times we pulled out the frozen. he begrudgingly ate yesterday's after waiting another hour to eat. today, he cried so hard, he went back to sleep. then i tried again with another frozen bag when he woke up (so 6 hours total without eating), and he wailed at me. i finally gave him the boob.

I would say try mixing it and keep at it.  Don't throw away your milk. 

august8080

Does it make a difference if someone else gives him the bottle and you're nowhere around? Some babies won't take a bottle from mama because they know the good stuff is nearby.

el_twirpo

august8080:

Does it make a difference if someone else gives him the bottle and you're nowhere around? Some babies won't take a bottle from mama because they know the good stuff is nearby.

i just emailed my husband suggesting that i not be anywhere in sight during that bottle feeding.

i'm going to pump some fresh this afternoon and try again tomorrow morning. we had one ounce of fresh left in the fridge from a few days ago, and it smelled fine. hopefully mixing fresh & frozen works!