Day two of our time without Going Mom is complete! I know I’m a stay-at-home parent, but geez, times can be a little rough! I don’t know how you parents with multiple kids do it, but my hat goes off to you.
I’ve been making our own kefir with kefir grains I bought back in July and haven’t become slightly good at making the cultured, probiotic-rich milk. So, I had the bright idea to make kefir with Kelley’s breast milk and give try it out on Avery.
I only made about 4 oz worth and tried giving Avery the bottle first thing this morning. Emphasis on “tried”, she wasn’t having it.
Not only that, but it took a while before she trusted to take any bottle from me! So, I had a pissed off and hungry, untrusting baby to tend to for the better part of the morning. Not the fun morning I had envisioned, but eventually things returned to normal when we went to the garage for a workout.
I felt bad, really bad. In retrospect, why would I give a 10.5 month old baby that’s used to sweet breast milk a full bottle of sour, albeit healthy, milk? #fail
Wasting my wife’s precious milk is something I refuse to do, so I boldly hesitantly (with a super scrunchy face) added a small amount of the kefir to a regular bottle in an attempt to mask the taste. The result was a success and I have been adding a little to each bottle now without protest, so I’m glad to have saved the breast milk kefir!
With that said, I do not plan on making breast milk kefir ever again! Really, breast milk is already the perfect source of nutrition for your baby, and, well, “If it ain’t broke…..” Basically, I now know to leave well-enough alone.
To the breastfeeding mothers out there (you’re awesome!), if you want your baby to have the probiotic goodness of kefir, just consume it yourself and pass on the benefits through your breast milk that way. In my opinion, culturing breast milk is unnecessary since it already has so many gut-nourishing goodness to offer, so don’t waste your time like I did.
After our kefir quarrel, Avery and I had a pretty good rest of the day and even ended it by watching a classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon from 1987 on YouTube. I’m pretty sure I owned the cassette tape to the one we watched and plan on watching more very soon! Hopefully Going Mom will allow a little TMNT action!
Well, I’m tired, here are my pics to share from today. So excited to have my wife return home today!! Too bad it’s late at night and Avery will be asleep, but at least she can see me!
Have you ever tried (or even thought of) to make breast milk kefir?
Would you try if you could?
Came across this thread. Ive been thinking about pumping some extra milk (I have an 11 mos old still nursing strong) for one if my twin 6 years olds with special needs. I was going to try and make BM kefir for him. How long did it take to culture. Regular dairy take 1-2days. Just wondering the difference. Thanks!
Hi Jenn, thank you for viewing, and it’s great to see you’re still going strong with nursing! I know it’s something I’ll never be able to do, but I support it 1000000%
As for culture times, it really depends on your ratio of grains to BM. I just used a 5 to 6 ounce bottle with almost 2 teaspoons of grains and was good after 6 hours. I assume you could stretch it to 12 hours depending on how healthy your grains are. If they are really active and vibrant, 6 hours should be perfect for such a small amount, but if they’re sluggish, go with 12 hours.
I’d love to hear how it works out for you, please keep me updated and let me know if you have any other questions!