How to Tell If Your Breast Milk Has High Lipase: Signs, Testing, and Solutions

Wondering if your breast milk has high lipase? I’ll be sharing all the details on how to spot the signs, how to test for it, and what to do if you find out you do.

Karter and I have been on our breastfeeding journey for the past six months, and while I love it for all the amazing health benefits, I never realized just how complex and unpredictable it could be.

While I haven’t personally dealt with high lipase in my breast milk, I’ve had friends share the challenges it brought to their breastfeeding journey. To help make things a little easier for new moms navigating this, I’m breaking down everything you need to know below.

What is Lipase and Why Is It Important?

Lipase is an enzyme found naturally within breast milk. The importance of lipase is to break down fats, so your baby can easily digest and absorb the important nutrients within your milk. Specifically, lipase helps to absorb healthy fatty acids like DHA, that fuel growth and development.

Lipase is crucial to have within breast milk, and completely safe if you find out you have high lipase within your milk. The only challenge comes when levels are higher than average, which can change the smell and taste of stored milk.

Signs Your Breast Milk May Have High Lipase

Some moms can spot high lipase in their milk without even testing. Signs might include a baby refusing stored milk but happily drinking it fresh, or noticing that refrigerated or frozen milk develops a soapy, metallic, or sour smell. The taste may also turn bitter after storage, even if it was perfectly fine when pumped. While some babies don’t mind high lipase milk, others may be more sensitive and refuse it altogether.

How to Test for High Lipase at Home

As you begin your breastfeeding journey, I always recommend checking for high lipase early on. Doing this right away can save you the frustration of building up a freezer stash that your baby might not like later. Here’s how to test for high lipase:

1. Pump 1–2 ounces of breast milk.
2. Refrigerate it for 24 hours.
3. Smell and taste it—compare with freshly pumped milk.
4. If the stored sample has a strong soapy or metallic odor, you likely have high lipase activity.

Tips for the Moms with High Lipase

If you have high lipase, please don’t stress over it! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you or your milk. It just requires a few more steps before freezing your milk.

1. Scald your milk: Right after pumping, heat your breast milk until small bubbles form around the edges, but don’t let it boil. Quickly cool and store. This process deactivates lipase, removing the soapy, metallic, or sour smell.
2. Mix fresh and stored milk: Sometimes blending the two helps dilute the soapy taste. Try this out with your baby and see what they prefer.
3. Use milk sooner: Store in the fridge and use within 24 hours instead of freezing. The less time the milk is sitting, the less time lipase has a chance to change the flavor and smell of your milk.
4. Save your milk for solids: If you do have high lipase, save your milk to be used in future recipes, such as purees, smoothies, muffins.
5. Use for Baby Milk Baths: This is huge! My mom and sisters always recommend to keep breast milk for future use, if needed. Milk baths are beneficial for moisturization, diaper rash, cuts and insect bites.

Finding out your breast milk has high lipase can feel frustrating, especially if you’ve worked hard to build a freezer stash. But remember, it doesn’t make your milk unsafe—it just means you may need to adjust how you store or prep it.

With a few simple strategies like scalding or using milk sooner, you can continue feeding your baby the very best. And no matter what your journey looks like, you’re doing an amazing job providing for your little one. 🤍

Be sure to follow along, as I share more tips & tricks I learn on my own journey!

Sources

Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. Clinical Protocols and Guidelines. https://www.bfmed.org/protocols

La Leche League International. Lipase and Human Milk. https://llli.org

KellyMom. Lipase and Human Milk. https://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/milkstorage/lipase-expressedmilk/