A taste of human milk

Now what does human milk taste like? Even experienced midwives and my breastfeeding counsellor pulled faces and admitted they didn’t know, when I asked them. I wouldn’t even dare to taste my own milk. Probably it is because we have associated milk with other bodily fluids which are seen as gross. And we know that fresh cow and goat’s milk have the subtle smell of the animals.

However, I got my two very curious and adventurous sons aged nine and six to taste my milk and they got hooked on it. They eagerly looked forward to finishing off leftover milk from their baby brother and when there was any excess, they made air bandung (milk mixed with rose syrup) with it!

I could not understand why they liked it so much until one day when I accidentally squirted some into my mouth. My instinct was to spit it out and run to the sink to disinfect my mouth. However, I was still recovering from my caesarean operation and was unable to leap out of the sofa and dash to the bathroom. Thus I had no choice but to swallow it. That was how I found the answer to this mysterious question. Human milk tastes like diluted condensed milk. It is light and sweet with absolutely no sickening flavour whatsoever – unless you drank too much salted fish soup!

At least three nurses from two different hospitals told me that there are women who produce breast milk and sell them in bottles for about RM100 in Penang. I can visualise feeding cow or any other animal’s milk to my brood but never another woman’s milk! It is such an intimate and private bond.

However, there are instances when some kind women would voluntarily donate their milk to help sickly babies who desperately needed it.

Please note that you must never give your baby another woman’s milk without your doctor’s approval because there are risks of serious infections being transmitted to your baby through breast milk. I know several mothers of premature and sick babies who successfully nurtured their very fragile babies by providing them with their milk. One of them, Winnie, had a premature daughter at 25 weeks who weighed only 825gm. Today, her daughter is a healthy three-year-old, thanks to her determination to breastfeed her child.

Another friend whose son had meningitis when he was a few weeks old attributed his healthy growth and intelligence to her efforts in breastfeeding him till he was five years old.

My fourth son, Vincent, was fully breastfed for more than four months and though he had many health complications, he is fondly remembered as an “apple cheek, chubby baby” by all. (Vincent lost his fight at seven months old due to premie-related illnesses.)