My failed attempt at making breast milk lotion

Well, my youngest daughter is now 17 months old and it has been several months since she took a bottle of milk.  She also has no desire to drink milk from a sippy cup.  So, I have about 25 oz of left over breast milk in my freezer that is getting a little bit old.  It's from a few months ago and before throwing it away, I googled what I could do with it.  I decided the most fun thing would be to make my own breast milk lotion! (Breast milk ice cream was a close second).

 

So I found a recipe here.

The recipe looked easy enough:

BREAST MILK LOTION

 

3 ounces of breastmilk

3 ounces oil (grapeseed oil for sensitive skin)

1 tablespoon of beeswax

a few drops of Vitamin E oil

optional: add essential oils for therapy/scent

 

Microwave the oil and beeswax slowly just until the beeswax melts, approximately 3 minutes.

Add the Vitamin E oil and slowly pour in the room temperature breastmilk while whisking rapidly until it thickens

(you can use an immersion blender to mix if preferred)

Pour into shallow jars or lotion tubs. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Refrigerate and use for up to 3 months.

recipe from: http://www.justbreastfeeding.com/benefits-to-breastfeeding/breast-milk-lotion-recipe/

So off I went to Whole Foods to find all the ingredients.  Turns out Whole Food didn't have beeswax so I was told I could substitute shea butter for beeswax.  So, here is how I made my first batch of breast milk lotion.  (disclaimer- it didn't turn out too well.  I think I used too much shea butter and it was really watery and kind of gross).

1. Buy the grapeseed oil, shea butter, vitamin E oil, eucalyptus essential oil.

It cost me exactly $34.73.  The most expensive things were the tiny vial of essential oils and the shea butter.  I picked eucalyptus. 

2. Defrost the breast milk if needed. I usually immerse a bag in a glass bowl within a pot of boiling water, then when the milk gets slushy I pour it directly into the glass bowl.

3. Melt the shea butter and grapeseed oil.  Here is where I was confused.  Since I was substituting  shea butter for beeswax, I was only supposed to use one tablespoon of shea butter but it really didn't look like enough.  So I used a few more tablespoons.  Still, the mixture was not hard but I figured it would harden later. 

Here is just the shea butter.  Alone it looks powdery but it if you rub it on your skin it turns oily right away. 



To measure 3 oz of grapeseed oil I just used an old breast milk container I had laying around.

mixed together it really just looked like oil.

4. Now you're supposed to add a few drops of Vitamin E oil and add the eucalyptus drops. I think I used way too much eucalyptus because the stuff in that vial is really concentrated. I imagine if you used essential oils you would know this, but I never had.









Eucalyptus oil cost: $9.39

5. Now add the breast milk.  The recipe said the milk should be room temperature.  Since I only had cold milk recently defrosted I just used that.  Maybe that messed things up?



recently defrosted breast milk.

The mixture started to separate and didn't mix very well at first.



Finally after wisking it together for a while it turned creamy, but still not quite thick enough.

 

That was pretty much it, then I poured everything into a glass jar I had and let it sit in the fridge. 

After about a day the consistency is still not quite right.  It looks like curdled milk to me.  It smells of way too much eucalyptus but not of milk (thankfully).  I tried a little on my skin and it was very oily. 

 

I don't know what I did wrong but it's just not quite right.  I think I'll try again with beeswax this time. 

Routine

Once again it's been a year since I wrote anything.  Mostly out of laziness.  I could say "I don't have time" but that's not really true.  I could make time but I don't.  I should though.  I like to write. 

Routine

We fall into routines in our lives.  Usually they are good and helpful.  They keep our lives in order and working.  They keep our children fed and clothed.  But too much of the same routine for too long (in my opinion) is never a good thing. 

Every night we come home from work.  Play with the children.  I sweep the floors and decide whether I want to start on dinner.  Half of the time I do start on dinner quickly, but the other half of the time we go out to eat or order something.  Preparing dinner at 6 pm at night is usually too hard.  I know I should "meal prep" or use my stupid crock pot.  But every time I use my crock pot I overcook the meat and the meal tastes like crap by the time we're ready to eat at 7 p.m.

After dinner we give the girls a bath, get them into their PJs and let them play (aka run around the house and fight with each other) until we decide it's bed time.  Usually the tv is on at this time and some movie is playing in the background.  Tonight the movie is Shrek.  For many agonizing weeks it was Tangled.  Before that, Mars needs Moms and Up.  I don't mind the kid's movies but again, the repetitiveness can drive you a little mad.

Once we determine it's bedtime (around 8:30 p.m.), I attempt to put the baby to sleep.  I take her upstairs and I nurse her to sleep.  Yes, I'm still nursing her.  Yes she's over a year old.  But she's still so little to me.  Especially compared to her older toddler sister.  Lately she wants to nurse about 4,000 times before going to sleep and it's starting to wear on me.  It's not that I mind nursing her but I only have 2 breasts and at this point in our nursing relationship I'm really not producing that much milk.  So after she eats off both sides once, there's not much there for her except to comfort nurse.  Finally, after about 20 minutes (on a good night) she falls asleep and I transfer her to the crib.

Then I go downstairs and pick up the toddler and bring her to her bed.  Lately she has been going to sleep without putting up a fight at all.  *Runs to knock on ALL THE WOOD*.

By this time it's about 9:30 p.m. if I'm lucky. Most nights I just plop myself on the couch and watch tv with my husband until 11 pm or later.  I enjoy my tv time at night, but what I really want to be doing is going to a gym, playing volleyball or doing some sort of exercise.  But alas- the routine.  I really need to break this vicious cycle and join a gym.  I think I will soon. I was on a Monday volleyball team but the season ended.  Hopefully we can put a team back together in the fall. 

 
 
 

So, there is my routine.  I don't mind it, but this summer we're going to have to change it up a bit for all of our sanity.  We're going to start going on more walks before or after dinner and we're going to try and play in the yard more nights.  Like so:

Playing in the dirt.

My two girls

Here is our beautiful newly renovated yard.

But for now, the routine persists.  Tonight, I broke the routine by writing this blog post.  Now to put the baby to bed!

Also.  I don't really know the point of this blog post, but here I am with my girls recently.