Easy Method: Scalding Breastmilk On Stove & Bottle Warmer

Do you want to learn about scalding your breastmilk on the stove top or in a bottle warmer? you have come to the correct place.

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Scalding Breastmilk

“My breast milk smells soapy”, “My baby is refusing pumped milk after refrigeration” or “my saved frozen milk smells off”

If you have these questions you may have to scald your breastmilk due to an excess of lipase.

Chances are that baby is refusing it because it has a high amount of the protein lipase and here is what you can do.

How and why is lipase in my breast milk and what does it mean to have an excess of it?

Lipase is in breastmilk because it is a protein produced by your pancreas and it helps your body digest fat. Now breast milk takes the best nutrients and proteins and all that good stuff from your body and gives it to baby. Well sometimes your body may be producing a little too much of that good stuff and extra lipase goes into your milk.

This isn’t always a problem when baby drinks the milk right away. But when it is frozen or refrigerated the extra lipase in the breastmilk can make it smell and taste off.

This is why in order to protect your milk from smelling and tasting off to your baby you can do what is called scalding. This removes the extra fat lipase from the milk.

Need more help with breastfeeding? Why not try a breastfeeding course like this one.

How to tell if your breast milk has an excess of lipase

If your breast milk is smelling like rotten eggs or your frozen breast milk smells metallic it could be due to high lipase in your breast milk.

You can check by doing this:

Pump your breast milk out
put it in a bottle in the fridge
the following day (or two days later) smell it
if it smells soapy chances are you have high lipase in your milk

What you will need to scald your breast milk

Bottle Warmer
Stove top pot
Stainless steal bottle
Food thermometer

Bottle Warmer or Stove Pot

Using a bottle warmer like this one has been easier for most people, but a lot of moms do like to use their stove top and a small pot. We will explain both methods down below.

Stainless Steal Bottle

You will need a stainless steal bottle instead of a glass one because the process of scalding makes your breastmilk go from on the point of boiling to ice cold in a few seconds. So you will need something that will withstand that transition. Our go to one is this stainless steal bottle.

Food Thermometer

Making sure you heat your breastmilk to 180 degrees and no more is important because if your breast milk boils it will lose a lot of the antibodies that breast milk carries with the boil.

How to scald breastmilk on the stove

You’ll want to scald your breast milk on the stove if you don’t have a bottle warmer. This option is a little longer as with the bottle warmer you don’t have to do the step of pouring the milk into a bottle. Okay here is how you can do it.

How to scald breastmilk on stove

Total Time: 6 minutes

Have a large pot with ice water ready

You can get a large bowl or another pot that will fit the smaller pot inside of it. Fill it with ice water. You want this to be very cold.

Add breastmilk that has been pumped to a small pot on stove

I like to do this in batches so if you have a lot of expressed milk it will be easier to do. If you are doing this each time you express milk that is fine you just have to work really fast if you are working with a few ounces.

Heat breastmilk to 180 degrees F

You want to get it where small bubbles are forming at the edge of the pot but not boiling. This is important do not boil your breastmilk.

Remove from stove top and place in large ice bath

Once you see those small bubbles forming around the stove top pot – go ahead and remove the breast milk and quickly place it in the ice bath.

Add milk to stainless steal bottle & place in fridge

Let the milk cool completely in the fridge.

How to scald breast milk in a bottle warmer

The way to scald breastmilk in a bottle warmer is very similar to how you will do it on a pot on a stove top. The only difference is that instead of heating the water on the stove you are heating it on the bottle warmer and then quickly taking the bottle and putting it ice water to scald it. Then moving it to a refrigerator

Doesn’t scalding your breastmilk remove the nutrition from it?

No, because you are not boiling it. If you do happen to boil it you can still use it. But it will not have all the nutrients that fresh pumped or freshly expressed breast milk has. Which is why making sure you use a thermometer or making sure that it does not get to boil will help scald your breastmilk.

Does having excess lipase affect refrigerated milk, or just frozen milk? How to Tell if Excess Lipase is the Issue?

You may be thinking can you scald breastmilk after refrigerating? Which is a great question if you just figured out that you have high lipase and you have a lot of frozen or refrigerated milk.

Yes you can scald frozen or refrigerated breastmilk to remove that soapy, metallic smell or taste.

Is Excess Lipase Breast Milk Safe for Baby to Drink?

Yes, your milk is perfectly fine and still helping nourish your baby. However some little ones are more sensitive to tastes and will not take it if you do not scald it first.

This is what you can do if baby refuses breastmilk with high lipase

You can add a little of the frozen lipase breast milk to the fresh scalded breastmilk, little by little. This is great if you have a lot of expressed milk that is already stored in your freezer or in your freezer stash. That way you do not throw away or dispose of this breastmilk.

Over time your little one will start to get accustomed to the small batches of lipase breastmilk. Soon (within a few weeks) you will be able to add half of a bottle with the lipase milk and half of it with the scalded breast milk.

And if you feed baby fresh just pumped milk they are more likely to take it right away.

So scalding my breast milk will fix my excess lipase issue?

No, scalding breastmilk will not fix you having an excess of lipase. What it fixes is removing the fat protein from the milk to help baby drink it easier.

Is exclusively pumping with excess lipase possible?

Yes, you can pump exclusively with excess lipase milk. Do I have to scald all of my milk that I pump?

You may have to scald a good majority of your breastmilk that you express if your little one is being fussy about drinking it. You can like mentioned above, start adding some of your pumped frozen milk (that has not been scalded) to breastmilk that has been scalded to get baby used to the taste little by little.

Is scalded breast milk better than formula?

Scalded breastmilk still has a lot of nutrients just like regular breastmilk – so yes it is still better than giving your baby formula.

But please remember if breastfeeding or pumping is having a negative effect on your overall behavior, mental state, or just making you mad that you have to do all this extra stuff. Giving your baby formula to help your mental state is a total win. A fed baby is better than a starved one and a healthy mom is better than a sick one.

Easy method: Scalding breastmilk on stove & bottle warmer