Is it good to boil breast milk?

The Debate on Boiling Breast Milk: Is It Beneficial?
Breast milk is often hailed as the gold standard for infant nutrition, providing essential nutrients and antibodies that support a baby’s growth and immune system. However, the question of whether it is advisable to boil breast milk has sparked considerable debate among parents and health professionals alike.
Nutritional Integrity at Risk
One of the primary concerns with boiling breast milk is the potential loss of its nutritional and immunological properties. Research indicates that overheating breast milk can significantly damage its beneficial components, including antibodies and enzymes that are crucial for a baby’s health. These elements are vital for protecting infants from infections and supporting their developing immune systems. Therefore, boiling breast milk is generally discouraged as it can compromise these essential qualities.
Safe Warming Practices
Instead of boiling, experts recommend safer methods for warming breast milk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises parents to warm breast milk gently, using techniques such as placing the bottle in warm water or using a bottle warmer. These methods help maintain the milk’s integrity while ensuring it is at a comfortable temperature for feeding.
The Role of Boiling in Milk Safety
While boiling is often used to eliminate harmful bacteria in regular milk, breast milk is typically expressed in sanitary conditions, reducing the risk of bacterial contamination. Therefore, the necessity of boiling breast milk for safety reasons is minimal. In fact, the CDC emphasizes that breast milk can be safely stored and used without the need for boiling, provided it is handled correctly.
Conclusion: A Cautious Approach
In conclusion, boiling breast milk is not recommended due to the risk of damaging its nutritional value and immunological benefits. Instead, parents should focus on safe warming techniques that preserve the milk’s integrity. By doing so, they can ensure that their infants receive the full benefits of this vital source of nutrition without compromising its quality.

Can babies drink cold breast milk?

Breast milk does not need to be warmed. It can be served room temperature or cold.

Does breast milk lose nutritional value when heated?

So, when rewarmed at temperatures higher than 40°C (a temperature that most describe subjectively as lukewarm and not hot), human milk nutritional and immunological values begin to deteriorate. At temperatures of 50°C the rate of the milk quality [28] deterioration increases significantly [13].

Does pumped breast milk lose nutrients?

Generally, when freshly pumped, breast milk is at its peak regarding nutrients. Beyond this timeframe, vitamins, fatty acids, enzymes, antibodies, and growth factors might be a gradual loss.

Does boiling breast milk remove nutrients?

Just avoid letting it come to a boil as too much heat can lower the nutritional value. Freeze immediately after pumping. While this will not completely get rid of the taste of high lipase milk, it may help slightly.

Does boiling milk destroy hormones?

When cow’s milk is used to make baby formula, any rbST or IGF-I it may contain is completely denatured (changed irreversibly). The combination of digestion of rbST and IGF-I and heat treatments such as pasteurisation and boiling, renders cow’s milk and infant formulas made from cow’s milk safe from hormonal effects.

What happens if I boil breast milk?

Furthermore, boiling or microwaving your breast milk leads to mineral loss and loss of some of the critical nutrients that your breast milk contains, Medela noted.

What is the 5 5 5 rule for breast milk?

Something I recommend to moms is the 5-5-5 rule. Try and use milk within five hours at room temperature, five days in the fridge, and by five months in the freezer.

Does heat damage breast milk?

Yes. Any method of warming that heats the milk above 104F/40C can be detrimental, the nutritional and immunological value begins to deteriorate at this temperature. Many bottle warmers surpass this threshold.

Why shouldn’t you boil milk?

Studies have found that while boiling milk eliminated bacteria from raw milk, it also greatly reduced its whey protein levels. Other tests have shown lower levels of vitamins and minerals in boiled milk, including vitamin B2, B3, B6, and folic acid — in some cases by as much as 36%.

What are the disadvantages of boiling milk?

Reduction in vitamin and mineral content
Milk has high levels of B vitamins, however, these vitamins are particularly impacted by light and heat. Research has demonstrated that boiling milk can reduce its B vitamin content, with one study finding that boiling milk reduces its B vitamin content by around 25%.