If you are a breastfeeding mother or frequently come into contact with breast milk, you may have discovered that when stored, breast milk has a soapy or metallic taste. This phenomenon is usually accompanied by high lipase activity of milk. But what can it refer to and more specifically, how can one manage it?
Now let’s look at the problems we should try to avoid: the causes and obstacles to making the milk safe and tasty for the baby on a practical level.
What Is High Lipase Milk?
Understanding Lipase Activity
Lipase is found in milk and is used to cleavage fats into various units to ease digestion process. This process is particularly important for infants since the fats consumed are metabolised to essential nutrients that are vital for brain development, energy source and any other growth.
This process makes it easy for the nutrients to be absorbed in your baby’s small system of digestion. High Lipase Milk is good for the health of the baby but high activity that hydrolysed the milk can change the taste and smell of the milk particularly when stored.
Causes of High Lipase Activity
Different mothers might have different levels of High Lipase Milk because of genetics, diet or hormonal differences. While it is not detrimental in any way, it becomes a problem if your baby turns their mouth off from the milk because of the change in taste. For instance, some mothers attribute high lipase activity to a diet that is associated with some fats.
Identifying High Lipase Milk
Common Signs
- Unusual Taste and Smell: Refrigerated or even frozen milk becomes soapy or metallic when stored for a certain period of time.
- Baby’s Refusal: Your baby may turn away from the milk because it does not taste the same as before.
Simple Testing Method
To determine if High Lipase Milk is the issue:
- Pump a little amount of milk.
- My attitude freezes one portion and refrigerated another.
- After 24 hours, make a comparison of the taste and smell of the solution. Lipase activity is often high in milk with soapy or metallic odors when it is stored in urns or cans.
Managing High Lipase Milk
Preventing Taste Alteration
Scalding the Milk
Scalding is a simple method to deactivate the lipase enzyme before storing milk:
- Analyze the freshly expressed milk and heat it gently with low heat until it forms around its periphery (about 180°F).
- cool the milk as soon as possible and put it in the freezer. This method allows avoidance of the breakdown of fats by the enzyme and change of the taste of the milk during storage.
Storage Tips
- In order to reduce oxidation, food should be kept in airtight containers.
- Freeze milk as soon as possible in order to minimize the rate of lipase action.
- Chill milk and label the different milks with their date and time for better use.
Alternative Feeding Options
If scalding isn’t feasible, consider:
- Adding freshly expressed milk to the High Lipase Milk to reduce the change in taste.
- Give the milk in a cup with a small bottle or container with a slow flow nipple to minimize the change in taste to your babies.
Benefits of Lipase in Milk
Nevertheless, lipase helps to decompose fats, which are necessary for proper digestion of nutrients for infants since they are the most vulnerable category of the population. For example, it helps preterm babies properly digest fats, which are essential to their biology and rapid brain and body development during the first few months of life.
For instance, High Lipase Milk helps preterm babies digest fats to support their growth and development better than older infants. Full fat milk with high lipase promotes nutrient uptake while low fat minimizes adversative development.
Addressing Common Concerns
Impact on Milk Quality
High Lipase Milk activity therefore does not make breast milk less nutritious. Despite this it is a better source of nutrition than formula. All the vitamins, minerals and Immune boosting factors are still present though the taste has changed.
Effects on Baby’s Health
Milk that has been altered by the lipase enzyme is harmless to babies, despite its change of flavour for the worse. If your baby refuses to eat, correct storage of your baby’s food and practices in feeding may help tame the situation and retain the feeding rate.
Conclusion
High Lipase Milk may not be easy to work with at first, but with some strategy, you can easily get past it. As a result, small changes ranging from scalding temperature to appropriate refrigerator storage can be life changing.
Hey there, ladies Reminder: Your milk is still nutritious and will help get your baby the best start in life. When you remain very patient and determined, you can go on to do things that give the best to the baby without much stress.
Explore More on Breastfeeding Challenges:
- Safe Feeding Practice – Storing Breast Milk
- Reasons as to Why People Choose not to Breastfeed Again Buried
- How to Keep Your Supply Up While Pumping
FAQs
2. Is High Lipase Milk good for babies?
Yes it is safe it is nutritionally adequate even if the taste has changed from the normal textured milk.
1. It is still very much unclear what leads to High Lipase Milk in breast milk?
The chief causes of raised lipase levels are genetic factors and hormonal differences.
3. How is High Lipase Milk in milk recognized or checked?
Perform an easily reproduced experiment of comparing the taste and smell of milk that has been stored, after refrigeration or freezing.
4. Is it possible to reduce high levels of lipase activity in the milk?
But, unfortunately, you are unable to completely avoid it, before storing milk, which can cause changes in taste.
5. Does lipase have any effect toward the nutritional content of milk?
No it does it means that the nutritional value of the food items does not get affected.
