My wife recently stopped breast feeding our child. Will all the milk in her breasts turn sour? Will it be there forever, or does the body somehow re-absorb it? Please tell me that she isn’t destined to become like Jimmy, the kid in my Kindergarten class who constantly smelled like sour milk (but he also ate paste, and she isn’t planning to take that up)…
IANAD. If you taper off gradually, substituting other foods and beverages for breast milk, production slows up too. If it has to be done suddenly, yes, the milk is reabsorbed into the body. Hurts for a few days until this happens, though.
If “recently” means more than a week ago, it’s already gone.
Unless your wife has a most … unusual infection, no. Milk is soured by the action of lactose-fermenting bacteria, which aren’t usually found … er, there.
Well, that’s not true. It’s been 3 weeks since there’s been any breast feeding, and we checked last night, and there is still milk in them thar’ hills. However, the taste is certainly changed. Normally, it tastes kinda like lowfat cow’s milk, but with sugar added. Last night, it wasn’t sweet at all, but was more watered-down and also more “earthy” (in the same way that cinnamon is).
In this case, the breast feeding did stop “suddenly”; there was no tapering off. The child had been feeding only twice per day (morning and night) for almost 3 years, and we’d prepared him for the last few months that after his birthday, he would be a “big boy” and would no longer need “mommy milk”. He took it very well, surprisingly. He asked for it a few times, but we just told him that he was a big boy now so he didn’t need it any more, but he could still cuddle.
:eek:
no comment
Well, I guess we have different definitions of “suddenly.” Twice a day, IMHO, is almost weaned. To me, “suddenly” is when an unforseen circumstance forces you to go from providing all of a baby’s nutritional needs to providing none of them. As in a sudden need for Mom to have surgery when the baby is 6 months old.
Regardless, if there is no ongoing stimulus, lacation will naturally cease and any little bit that’s left will be reabsorbed.
IA(still)NAD, this is based on my own experience and observation.
No, it will not sour. Yes, the body will resorb it. If you continue to keep checking for it, you will always find a little that will be watery. The breat will produce milk according to the stimulus the nipple receives. I could still get a drop or two six months after I weaned my son, but by a year’s time, I was completely dry.
You’re on your own as far as taste, but there was certainly no smell. If every woman who had breastfed went around smelling like sour milk the rest of her life, you would have noticed it on someone besides some kid from grade school by now.