# Calling all adult breastmilk tasters (no, your infancy does not count) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 9, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494 "2009-01-09T05:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/41 "2009-01-09T21:09:48Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > What must you feed the producer with for optimal taste? Chocolate chip cookies. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/42 "2009-01-09T21:35:48Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > You said yourself it kept happening well after your baby no longer needed that level of milkfat šŸ˜• No, I didnā€™t. I meant to challenge the notion that my body would have a 14 month store of fat already dedicated to the offspring. Preemies do need more milkfat for months, and sheā€™s still a skinny little thing, despite an appetite for butter eaten by the spoonful. There was no more fat in there than she needed. She needed more fat than most infants, and so she got it. > [@](#): > > I bet Iā€™m pretty close, but even if Iā€™m not, the explanation is something equally as mundane. Your body was already equipped to fed a baby at that precise stage of devlopment. All it did was externalize some of the food. Oh, of course it is. Itā€™s biochemical, hormonal, etc. Thereā€™s some perfectly logical process behind it thatā€™s amazing and wonderfully cool, and almost entirely not yet understood. Itā€™s not, as I said, ID or creationism - itā€™s just even \*more \*amazingly cool to me than the things the IDers point to as ā€œgotchasā€ (like eyes and bats and giraffes). Come on - we can admit things are cool and we donā€™t yet know how they work! If we could already explain everything, biology would be a very boring science! ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/43 "2009-01-09T21:41:42Z")
[Steve, Donā€™t Eat It!](http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000142.php) covered this one a while back. It comes to the same basic conclusion as everybody here, but mostly funnier. Some cussing and a couple of pictures that are probably NSFW. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/44 "2009-01-09T22:13:54Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > šŸ˜• No, I didnā€™t. You said it lasted for 14 months. Thatā€™s past the time when the baby needed that much milkfat. > [@](#): > > I meant to challenge the notion that my body would have a 14 month store of fat already dedicated to the offspring. I wasnā€™t saying you did. I was saying thatā€™s what was going on _initially_, and that hormones and expression kept it going at the same level that your body was already producing for that stage of pregnancy. > [@](#): > > Preemies do need more milkfat for months, and sheā€™s still a skinny little thing, despite an appetite for butter eaten by the spoonful. There was no more fat in there than she needed. She needed more fat than most infants, and so she got it. She got it because you were already producing for a baby at exatcly that stage of development. Thereā€™s nothing mysterious about it. > [@](#): > > Oh, of course it is. Itā€™s biochemical, hormonal, etc. Thereā€™s some perfectly logical process behind it thatā€™s amazing and wonderfully cool, and almost entirely not yet understood. > Itā€™s not, as I said, ID or creationism - itā€™s just even \*more \*amazingly cool to me than the things the IDers point to as ā€œgotchasā€ (like eyes and bats and giraffes). > > Come on - we can admit things are cool and we donā€™t yet know how they work! If we could already explain everything, biology would be a very boring science! I wasnā€™t trying to buzzkill your awe about it, just offer an explanation. I canā€™t help wanting to offer prosaic explanations for things that other people get even a little bit woo woo about. Itā€™s on my harddrive. I canā€™t help myself. Everything about pregnancy and childbirth is amazing, of course. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/45 "2009-01-09T22:53:12Z")
Itā€™s sweet and thin. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/46 "2009-01-10T00:21:44Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > What must you feed the producer with for optimal taste? Hot Wings, at least that was what my daughter liked best. As a tiny baby she often smelled of hot wings. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/47 "2009-01-10T01:55:11Z")
I have read that cheese made from human breast milk is extremely delicious. Iā€™d love to try it some day. Supposedly itā€™s made in Belgium, although probably not for sale. Iā€™ve also read that people tend to like salty and sweet tastes due to the experience of breast feeding - the sweet breast milk and the salty skin of mom if sheā€™s sweat at all. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/48 "2009-01-10T02:10:53Z")
> [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](#): > > I have read that cheese made from human breast milk is extremely delicious. Iā€™d love to try it some day. Supposedly itā€™s made in Belgium, although probably not for sale. > > Iā€™ve also read that people tend to like salty and sweet tastes due to the experience of breast feeding - the sweet breast milk and the salty skin of mom if sheā€™s sweat at all. My admittedly overly-analytical biogeek take on those cravings is the fact that sugars and sodium are critical biochemically required components of healthy human function. That, I believe, is the root cause of those cravings. ---
**Author:** ![Lily\_Milliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8edcca/32.png) [@Lily\_Milliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lily_Milliner)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494/49 "2009-01-10T02:46:12Z")
I just came in to note that the best description I ever heard for the taste of breastmilk is that itā€™s like the milk left in the bowl after youā€™ve eaten Cheerios with sugar on them. ā€œSweet and thinā€ misses the slightly grainy, carby taste I noted when I tasted mine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-all-adult-breastmilk-tasters-no-your-infancy-does-not-count/480494.md?page=2)