Doctors Warn Against Breast Milk Soap

Human breast milk is normally intended for consumption by babies, but people keep finding other uses for it. Chefs have turned it into everything from lollipops to breast milk sherbet, and now a set of entrepreneurial women in China have been making a killing selling artisanal breast milk soap.

According to Want China Times, the breast milk soap is sold as a beauty product on the online shopping site Taobao, where it is credited with the ability to make an adult human's skin smoother, whiter, and healthier.

"I made it from my own milk. Look! My son is here," one soap seller said, showing off her official taste tester as proof that she was using real, human breast milk and not some questionable unknown ingredient.

One soap seller said she found instructions on the Internet for making breast milk soap and it was so easy she decided to go into business.

In addition to being good for feeding babies and making strange culinary experiments, breast milk is often said to have other healing properties that make it a good cure for skin issues like diaper rash and infections like pink eye.

But while doctors confirm that breast milk has a rich variety of nutrients, they also say the soap-making process destroys those nutrients and one is just left with regular soap.

"The active matter contained in the milk is destroyed, so there are few nutrients left," one doctor told Want China Times.

Several have warned against buying breast milk soap off the Internet. In addition to likely being useless as a beautifying product, it's possible that diseases could be transmitted if the milk comes from someone in poor health.