yummy??

Okay.  Let's talk about breast milk.  More specifically ... let's talk about the taste of breast milk vs. the taste of formula.

So you might be thinking to yourself ... Mary, how can we talk about the taste of formula vs. the taste of breast milk if we have never tasted either one?  (cue a long silent pause)  (cue birds chirping)  Well loyal readers I have tasted both my breast milk and formula.  It might actually surprise you that I taste my breast milk on a regular basis.  I also, as a mother, pull boogers from my kid's nose.   And I get peed and pooped on on a regular basis.  Did I just make you scrunch up your nose a bit??  Okay.  I am getting a bit off topic.  Yes.  I taste my breast milk.  It's not like I am chugging down a few ounces at a time.  I usually just stick my finger in the milk to taste it.  I'm going to taste whatever I feed my kid.  I mean we test the temperature of bath water before we stick in our kid.  So why wouldn't I taste what I am going to feed my kid?  I will probably also taste all of their foods.  So here is what I have learned ... A baby must have zero taste buds OR because a baby has not been exposed to different tastes it is impossible for a baby to know what tastes "good" and what tastes "bad".  I guess this would be evidence in support of the theory that we use too many sweeteners and artificial flavors in our foods.  So formula ... Yuck!  Gross!  To be honest I can't really explain the flavor of formula.  Perhaps you could equate it to chalk?  It's just not good.  Plain and simple.  No further explanation needed in this case.  And then we move onto breast milk.  The taste of breast milk is not so simple to sum up in a single word description.  The taste is always different to a certain extent based upon several factors that include (1) what I have eaten and (2) the freshness of the breast milk and (3) the temperature of the milk.  We try to give the boys fresh breast milk as often as possible because fresh breast milk is the most nutritious.  And fresh breast milk tastes the best.  It really just tastes like regular cow's milk except for the sweetness factor.  It is super sweet.  The breast milk out of the fridge tastes about the same but it does lose some of its sweetness over time. But frozen breast milk .... Yuck! Gross! Blah!  Why so gross?  Here is what I have learned about breast milk.  There is an enzyme in breast milk called lipase.  It helps to break down the fats in breast milk.  There are some mothers that produce an excess of lipase.  Guess what?  That would be me.  So why is this a problem you might be asking ... the older the breast milk the more disgusting it tastes.  What does it taste like?  Soap.  Yep.  Soap.  But even though the milk tastes really bad it is still okay for the boys to drink.  We have been rotating some of my freezer stash and I decided to taste the thawed milk the first day I was giving it to the boys.  Yeah.  I almost threw-up.  I seriously felt like my mother had washed my mouth out with soap.  Which she probably needs to do because I do have the mouth of a sailor and even though I am trying not to cuss around the boys it is difficult.  It would be easier to give up candy.... sorry off topic again.  I had to grab some potato chips that were on the counter and shove them into my mouth just to get the taste out of my mouth.  I thought that there was no way in the world that the boys would drink this milk.  I was crushed.  I thought I was about to lose my entire freezer stash (only about 350oz but still a good amount)  But they did drink it.  They didn't even pause to say, "Hey Mom!  What the heck are you feeding us?"  The only bad part ... I swear the boys smell like the soapy breast milk.  I snuggle up with them in the evening and I smell it spilling out of their pores.  Yuck!  So what is the point to this rambling ... Not much really.  Except that I will never be drinking thawed breast milk or formula anytime soon.

Mary