When you see babies suckling happily at breast milk, you may just assume that it is food made in a land of milk and honey. It is of course milk, but the honey aspect is not exactly so, at least not in the lips of an adult; maybe for a child, they feel the honey and all on their tongues. But when you ask the question, what does breast milk taste like, you are asking as an adult, on an adult's taste buds.

If you are more concerned for a child, the question will be, is breast milk healthy for a child? Healthy and nutritious are the only pair. But if you insist that the question is about the child, about seeing it, or rather tasting it, with the tongue of a child, then it is a different question altogether and the answer is simple, we will never know.

What does breast milk taste like to an adult?

All kinds of breast milk do not taste the same. There are many things that can influence the taste of breast milk. First, it depends on how old the milk is. Breast milk is said to be mature after the first four days of breastfeeding the child. In the first two to three days, the milk taste is basically colostrum and is yellowish and similar to the discharges a woman might have experienced from her breasts during pregnancy.

It is thin, watery and very sugary. It contains protein and antibodies and its main job is to build the immunity and the digestive system of the newborn baby. This early stage of breast milk tastes sweet.

When in four days the milk matures, it no longer tastes very sugary. This time it contains more than just protein and antibodies. It now has in its content, carbohydrates, sugar, fat, and minerals. It serves as both water and food for the baby and takes care of its thirst and hunger.

Because breast milk also contains hundreds of species of beneficial bacterias which help in the defense of the child, this mature breast milk tastes rather sour, more than sweet-sour, so very much like raw cow milk.

It also depends on the mother's diabetic condition. If a woman is diabetic her breast milk has insulin and glucose and reduced fatty acids and this is likely to show in the taste. There is also a small risk of the baby struggling with language in its infancy but this is rather unserious or unbacked with deep research to warrant any ban on breast milk of diabetic mothers.

Other factors that can affect the flavor and taste of human milk

Smoking - a mother who smokes will have some flavor and taste of smoke, no matter how minute, in her breast milk. Continuing to smoke while breastfeeding is not advised. But if your life depends on cigarettes, just try not to smoke within two hours of breastfeeding.

Alcohol - breast milk of an alcoholic will have alcohol in it and will taste different. This may be too strong for some babies and they will refuse it. Occasional drinkers do not have to worry about this but just make sure you do not take beer or the likes within two hours before breastfeeding.

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