Diane,

Excess lipase causes a soapy, occasionally described as sourness in stored
milk.
The solution for excess lipase is to scald the pumped milk before storing
it, this inactivates the lipase. Yes, scalding does reduce some of the
beneficial aspects of the stored milk but it's still way better for baby
than ABM and milk that a baby won't take is way less beneficial than scalded
then frozen/stored milk.

There is a way to scald in a microwave if necessary, I don't remember off
hand what exactly the protocol is.

In my league meeting we recently had a mother with a lipase problem, she
discovered through trial and error that she could store milk for no more
than 3-4 hours before it began to sour/get soapy.  I believe that she had
her child care provider feed the milk she pumped in the morning the same
afternoon and scalded the afternoon pumping before storing, she couldn't
store overnight without scalding.

I think we don't hear about lipase as often as it probably occurs because
really only mothers who pump and store milk would be in a position to know
that when stored their milk went "bad".

Ruth
LLLL in Arizona

Date:    Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:38:09 -0500
> From:    Diane Perrone <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Soapy tasting thawed breastmilk
>
> Pardon me if this has been discussed before.  However, a search of the
> archives did not yield a match.  A mother of a six week old infant, who
> nurses very well, left a bottle of thawed breastmilk for her husband to
> feed
> the baby while she went to a wedding shower.  The baby refused the milk
> and
> waited patiently for her return.  She first thought this was just the baby
> waiting  for her, but the next day, he refused to take thawed breastmilk
> again, this time from the grandmother.  Mother tasted the milk and reports
> that it has a soapy taste.  She thawed another portion and it  also had a
> soapy taste.  She freezes her milk in Gerber milk storage bags.  Her LLL
> leader has told her that this is from excessive amounts of lipase in her
> breastmilk.  He continuies to nurse well with no sign of rejection when at
> the breast.
>
> Does anyone have information to share with me for this mother?
>
> Diane Perrone, RNC
> Materna Wellborn
> Algonquin   IL   USA
>
>

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