cooking with breastmilk

Anastasia - posted on 05/06/2009

I've cooked with my breast milk for my son, mainly because to store my milk for long I have to heat it anyway (excess lipase), so I figured why not use it in other things. I make his cereal with it, cooked regular oatmeal, brown rice, cream of wheat. We've also tried putting it on his dry oat o cereal, he's not a big fan of that yet. Also used it to make cheese sauces for macaroni dishes and I've put it in his pancake batter. Pretty much I've always been able to just sub it for cow's milk in recipes, no adjustment. Soy milk is thicker, so I would think that's why you'd want to thin it with some water, but breastmilk isn't like that. Good luck!

Christina - posted on 05/06/2009

Thanks,lol. I am clueless too.

I have heard a few different things such as:

When using breastmilk (BM) you have to cook the food right away because if you let it sit than the enzymes in the milk may start breaking down the other ingrediants and it may also get really thin an runny. I know that soya milk has to be mixed with a certain amount of water to equal one cup of cows milk so I was wondering if the same thing applies to BM.

Allison - posted on 05/06/2009

Ok, I'm clueless then ;-) I don't really use milk in things except some pasta sauces or soups. I put milk on cereal, though :-) I would guess that you would use breastmilk the same way that you'd use any milk in any recipe.

Christina - posted on 05/06/2009

Aside from his Beachnut Oatmeal, my lil guy eats everything that we do. So I am relating to all recipes that you would usually use soya or cow/goat milk. We are hoping to substitute them with my breast milk for the dishes prepared just for him.

Allison - posted on 05/06/2009

I know you can make breastmilk yogurt, but I don't know the recipe. You do have to have cultures, which I think you can order online.

What types of things are you thinking of cooking? For the first year, I mostly stick to fruits and veggies plus meats, with few grains (no wheat). So we don't do pastas either until a year. My kids have been fine finding stuff to eat and I haven't missed the milk or needed other liquid besides water when cooking. Of course, they still nursed and got the breastmilk from me directly, but not in their foods. I'd guess if you were wanting to make cream-based soups you could with your milk. This reminds me of the show Providence, where Jody made her mom's Clam Chowder (I think) and someone accidentally put breastmlk in the soup instead of the normal milk, and everyone loved the recipe better! Until they found out it had Jody's milk in it, of course!

Anyhow...

Have you looked at http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com and http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com? Those are great sites for food ideas :-)

Good luck!

Christina - posted on 05/06/2009

Thanks so much Jennifer! I'll check out those links.



As far as the part about eating something with someone else's breast milk...yuck! I agree! I would be serving it to just him and no one else, lol! I'd make a mini dish just for him substituting it with the breast milk. Not sure how long I'll be able to do this for but for now it is what I'll have to do until I can find something else suitable. I am praying he will outgrow the allergy.

Jennifer - posted on 05/06/2009

I've never done this or even heard about it, but your question made me curious so I did a little internet research and came across the following links that you might find helpful.



http://www.landmilkhoney.com/recipanr.ht...

http://stargatelibraries.com/MilkRecipes...

http://www.amazon.com/Breastfeeding-Moth...



There wasn't a lot out there, but if you can find a copy of that book, it looks promising.



What I took away from my quick research (besides that this is way controversial!) is that breast milk can be substituted for cow's milk in just about anything but that you don't want to microwave it because it will break down the milk.



For what it's worth, the thought of eating something made with someone else's breastmilk is strange to me. But feeding something prepared with breastmilk to a child who ate nothing else for the first part of their life doesn't seem wrong. Really, what's the difference? Especially with the allergy concerns you described!



So good luck. I hope you're able to find the information you need. Have fun experimenting!

Jennifer - posted on 05/06/2009

I've never done this or even heard about it, but your question made me curious so I did a little internet research and came across the following links that you might find helpful.



http://www.landmilkhoney.com/recipanr.ht...

http://stargatelibraries.com/MilkRecipes...

http://www.amazon.com/Breastfeeding-Moth...



There wasn't a lot out there, but if you can find a copy of that book, it looks promising.



What I took away from my quick research (besides that this is way controversial!) is that breast milk can be substituted for cow's milk in just about anything but that you don't want to microwave it because it will break down the milk.



For what it's worth, the thought of eating something made with someone else's breastmilk is strange to me. But feeding something prepared with breastmilk to a child who ate nothing else for the first part of their life doesn't seem wrong. Really, what's the difference? Especially with the allergy concerns you described!



So good luck. I hope you're able to find the information you need. Have fun experimenting!