What does breast milk taste like?

How does breast milk taste?

The flavor of breast milk varies, but it’s most often described as very sweet. It contains water, fat, carbohydrates (lactose), proteins, vitamins and minerals, and amino acids. It’s the lactose – which makes up about 7% of breast milk – that makes it taste like sugar.

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Babies have an innate preference for that sweet taste. It signals that the food has beneficial nutrients, according to a reviewOpens a new window published in Current Biology. Babies instinctively reject bitter tastes, which are linked to harmful things such as poisonous substances.

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An amazing thing about breast milk is that the taste differs from mom to mom, from one feeding to another, and even from the start of a feeding to the end.

“Breast milk changes to meet your baby’s needs, containing just the right nutrients in just the right ratios at every stage of growth,” says Kate Shand, an international board-certified lactation consultant and member of the BabyCenter Medical Advisory Board.

The milk a mother produces for a premature baby, for example, isn’t the same as the milk she’d make for a full-term newborn. (Preterm milk is even higher in fat and immunities than full-term milk.) Your first milk, colostrum, is less sweet because it’s higher in nutrients and protein and lower in fats and lactose. As your mature milk comes in (a few days after birth), it will contain more sugar and taste sweeter.

Your mature milk can vary in taste, too, depending on a number of factors, including the time of day and what you’ve eaten. The milk you produce can change over the course of a single feeding, too! Foremilk – the milk your baby gets when they first nurse – is thinner and more watery than the milk at the end of feeding (hindmilk), because the hindmilk is high in fat and calories. One studyOpens a new window found the sweetness of foremilk and hindmilk to be similar, with the creamier hindmilk containing a more intense vanilla flavor.

Breast milk contains substances that boost your baby’s immunity and protect against SIDS. It may lower your baby’s risk of allergies and eczema, and some studies point to a connection between breastfeeding and cognitive development.

Breastfeeding is good for a mom’s health, too. It may reduce your risk of postpartum depression and anxiety, lower stress levels, reduce your risk of certain illnesses, and help reduce your risk of obesity. Learn more about how breastfeeding benefits you and your baby.

What breast milk tastes like, according to moms

A poll in the BabyCenter Community found that 70% of moms had tried their breast milk, and of those about half said their breast milk is delicious. (The other half said it was just okay; only 2% found it nasty.)

Descriptions of the taste run the gamut from melted ice cream to bacon. Here’s what some moms said:

“To me it tasted sweet. Even my mom tasted it. She said it was like skim milk.”

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“My husband tasted it and said, ‘no wonder he eats so much, that stuff is really good!'”

“I thought it was pretty tasty, very sweet.”

“It’s like milk left at the bottom of the bowl of sugary cereal.”

What can change the flavor of breast milk?

There are many things that can change the flavor of your breast milk, including your diet. Breast milk doesn’t taste exactly like what you eat, but some strong flavors are especially likely to affect the taste of your milk.

One studyOpens a new window found that the following flavors found their way into moms’ breast milk: caraway, anise, mint, eucalyptus, garlic, carrots, and alcohol.

Don’t be worried that what you eat could change the taste of your milk – this is actually a good thing, because it exposes your baby to different flavors.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office on Women’s HealthOpens a new window, this could make your baby less picky down the road. Or, as the organization says, “Through your breast milk, your baby eventually gets a slight taste of whatever you eat, although not directly. This may make introducing solid foods easier.”

In fact, there’s some evidence that if you eat a lot of vegetables while breastfeeding, your child will eat their veggies later! One studyOpens a new window of more than 1,300 moms with 6-year-olds found that moms who ate a lot of vegetables while breastfeeding and breastfed longer than 16 weeks were more likely to have kids who ate plenty of veggies.

Other things that may affect the taste of your milk:

Certain medications. Some drugs may affect the smell and taste of your milk. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if that might be the case with any prescription or over-the-counter medication you’re taking.
Hormones. When you get your period or become pregnant, the changes in hormones can change the flavor of your milk. Many moms report their babies react differently to their milk at these times.
Exercise. Some experts suggest that when you exercise strenuously, your body builds up lactic acid, which can affect the taste of your breast milk. But other researchOpens a new window has found that moderate or even strenuous exercise while breastfeeding doesn’t affect a baby’s acceptance of breast milk. (If you find that your baby resists nursing after you’ve exercised, it may be because sweating has made the skin on your breasts taste salty.)
Smoking. Nicotine affects the smell and taste of breast milk. Also, researchOpens a new window suggests that the flavor of tobacco in breast milk may influence the chances of a child smoking later in life.
Alcohol. Alcohol has been shown to affect the smell of breast milk, and studies show it reduces the amount of milk a baby will consume. (After you have a drink, your breast milk will contain alcohol for two to three hours.)
Mastitis. It’s a good idea to continue breastfeeding if you develop mastitis (breast inflammation), but your baby may object to the salty taste that results from the infection.
Storage. If you detect a soapy or slightly sour smell in breast milk that you’ve pumped or expressed, it’s from lipase, an enzyme that breaks down fats. The longer it’s stored, the more lipase the milk will contain. Lipase isn’t harmful, but it may change the usual taste of your milk. (This tends to happen if your milk has been frozen and defrosted.) You can prevent this by heating your breast milk to scalding before (not after) freezing it. Don’t let the milk boil – heat it just until little bubbles form around the edges. This prevents lipase from breaking down the fat. Let the milk cool before freezing. Only do this if it’s necessary (your baby won’t otherwise drink the milk), because scalding your breast milk will reduce some of its nutrients.
Chemical oxidation. If your milk smells sour or rancid, you may be dealing with chemical oxidation. According to La Leche League InternationalOpens a new window, this can be caused by eating a diet high in polyunsaturated fats or rancid oils (old vegetable oils or nuts, for example) or drinking water with higher levels of copper or iron. The milk isn’t safe for your baby, and scalding it will worsen the problem. Talk with your healthcare provider or a lactation consultant if you think this may be the case.

Note: If your breast milk smells bad, like sour cow’s milk, it’s spoiled and not safe for your baby. (It may have been contaminated during pumping or storage.)

And in case you’re wondering – eating more sugar won’t make your breast milk taste sweeter!

Is it okay to try my breast milk?

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Yes. Breast milk is a perfectly healthy and natural food, and there’s no harm in you trying it. In fact, if you’re unsure about the milk (because it may have gone bad or developed an off taste, for example), it’s a good idea to test it before giving it to your baby or storing it.

Be careful about sharing your breast milk or tasting others’ breast milk, though. Bodily fluids can transmit certain diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV. If your partner wants to try expressed breast milk, it’s okay as long as you don’t have any health problems you might pass on. If they want to try nursing from your breast, make sure they don’t have any health conditions (such as herpes or thrush) they could give to you.

Breast milk is sometimes also used for its healing properties. It can help heal cracked or bleeding nipples, as long as the problem isn’t due to thrush. And some researchers are working on using parts of breast milk therapeutically to fight cancer.

Is breast milk similar to cow’s milk?

Both breast milk and cow’s milk contain many of the same ingredients – protein, fats, carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals. But your body produces breast milk specifically for your baby, with just the right nutrient balance for them at their stage of development. And, importantly, your milk is easy for your baby to digest.

Cow’s milk, on the other hand, has a nutrient balance that’s appropriate for calves. It doesn’t have the correct amounts of fats or nutrients your baby needs, such as vitamin C and iron. And it can tax a baby’s immature kidneys and irritate the lining of their digestive system, leading to iron-deficiency anemia.

For these reasons, it’s not safe to give cow’s milk to a baby until their first birthday. Foods containing dairy – such as yogurt and cheese – are okay for most babies to have once they start eating solid foods.

Does formula taste similar to breast milk?

Formula isn’t as sweet as breast milk, and the taste doesn’t change over time, like breast milk does.

Perhaps because breast milk is sweeter than formula, babies often prefer it. “Babies who are used to breast milk sometimes reject formula,” says Shand.

If you’re a breastfeeding mom supplementing with formula or transitioning to using it exclusively, you can gradually combine formula with breast milk in order to get your baby used to the taste.

For example, if you usually give 4 ounces of breast milk in a bottle, you could do 3 ounces of breast milk with 1 ounce of formula mixed in, and then gradually use more and more formula until the switch is made.

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