Baby rejecting my expressed breast milk

This happened to me when baby Ming Jun was about 10 months. His daily intake of expressed milk suddenly dropped from 180ml to 90ml.

Of course I was concerned and even made a few queries.

The answers I received came back as questions:-
a) is baby active?
b) is baby weight reasonable?
c) is he alert?
d) he's taking solid food?
e) he's teething?

If the answers for a -c are "yes", then there is no cause for concern especially if the answer to either d or e is affirmative.

But still I find it disturbing because he loves to direct latch but will not drink the expressed breast milk.

My first suspicion was that it must have been cos I froze the milk but then it did not make sense since he had been drinking it for the past months.

Then I remembered reading about milk having iron or metallic or fishy smell.

So I looked up on Gina Yong's Love Breastfeeding book and there was a write up on SCALDING milk to deactivate LIPASE enzyme.

THIS WAS THE ANSWER as every night when I return from work, I noticed my milk smelling fishy or metallic. 

Because lipase enzyme will react with the fats in the milk and break it down.

SO.. how to SCALD milk?

to scald the milk I place in a glass cup

The easiest and fastest is to use a food warmer.. and to be even faster, I pour into the warmer hot water from thermos pot.

Scald the milk immediately after expressing so that the enzyme does not have the chance to react with the milk.

I scald the milk for about 5 minutes and then I quickly cool the milk.

to cool the milk

I used to place the milk in a bowl of water first but now I just straight away put in my cooler box. You tend to have lower standards after doing this for a couple of months  :p

After that I treat the scalded milk the same way as normal expressed milk.

Meaning I will store in freezer and when I need it for the next day consumption, I will bring it down from freezer and place in fridge the night before for it to defrost.

IS SCALDED MILK STILL GOOD?
Well according to Gina Yong's book (page 95),

"Scalding the milk will destroy some of the antiinfective properties of the milk and may lower some nutrient levels, but this is not likely to be an issue and scalded milk is still far better than formula milk".

UPDATED:- SPECIAL TIP
Nowadays I prefer to give my baby the freshest of milk. Since baby is already 16 months, I only pumped once in my office, which typically yields about 150ml.

60ml of which I will used for the night feed on the same day.

Balance 90ml I will keep in fridge (not freezer) to be consumed the next day. Whatever leftovers which baby did not drink, I will keep back in the freezer to be used for his breastmilk spa.

EXTRA NOTE
That is why, whenever I see photos of mommies pumping and keeping a lot of frozen milk, I find it a waste.

Because most of my milk ended up as spa milk because all my milks have been rendered "smelly" by the lipase enzyme because the longer you keep the milk, the stronger the metallic taste. And freezing the milk does not completely stop the lipase enzyme.

I suspect that consuming DHA or fish oil supplements is the culprit for higher lipase enzyme but I do not have scientific proof for it.

The reason I have this suspicion was because baby was rejecting the milk about the same time when I change from consuming GNC Double Strength Fish Oil to GNC Triple Strength Fish Oil.

But this is really a catch twenty twenty situation because I also realized that during pregnancy, I was perpetually experiencing a patch of dry skin above my lips which I thought then was fungal but now I know it's because I lacked "oil". So I need this intake of extra fatty oil.

Anyhow, whether you consume fish oil supplements or not, lipase enzyme is always present, so perhaps your baby is rejecting your milk now because his taste palate has been awaken with more food choices.

Thus he now have a choice to reject your expressed milk if it's not to his liking (temperature, taste etc).

So give scalding a try as it's clear from the photos below that scalding does make a difference to the milk which you can smell and see.

NON-SCALDED milk - with white patches

 

SCALDED milk - no white patches