Constistancy of breastmilk

Chantel - posted on 05/01/2009

Okay, first breastmilk is a living liquid. It changes and evolves with your baby as your baby grows. This process is defined by how your baby suckles at the breast, which changes as they grow.



Breastmilk has different cycles during a feeding. Foremilk which is high carbohydrate low fat, but filled with wonderful immunity, enzymes, hormones to help your baby develop. Hindmilk, which is high in fat. Foremilk looks bluish, hindmilk is thicker and has more cream.



Breastmilk is thin, the majority of breastmilk is water.



When you pump, you rarely get hindmilk because you get the initial let down and the pump never changes the way it compresses the breast like an infant will as the breast softens, and you usually do not pump as long as the baby suckles at the breast.



The crystals are absolutely nothing to be concerned about! Remember that breastmilk comes from your body and you body creates the nutrition that your infant needs. If you were exclusively nursing instead of pumping you would never know *grin*



Lastly, a dip in supply at 6-12 weeks is absolutely normal. Sometimes it is also connected to ovulation and the cycle returning. Many women find that their milk dips before they menstruate. However you may also feel like your supply is insufficient when your baby has a growth spurt. It is not and supplementing can actually hurt your supply!



When your baby has a growth spurt, they have increased nutritional needs, but it takes the breasts 24-72 hours to catch up to demand, so the baby nurses more often and seems more hungry. This is why nursing on demand without supplementation is so important. As your baby nurses, your body cues more milk production to meet the increased demand. Supplementing interferes with this process.



You will probably see another increase in demand around 12 weeks and then again around 6 months. It is normal. You can help your body by drinking enough water (I usually say make a goal of a gallon of water a day and do your best) and eating enough protein, because your body needs a increase in protein when nursing.

for more info, try www.kellymom.com

Melissa - posted on 05/01/2009

I agree with the post by Amanda K. People have made similar comments to me about what my milk looks like! You probably know this already, but when you first start nursing at a feeding, your milk is more watery- it is as you continue to nurse that your baby will get the "creamier" milk. So it is normal, when you pump, that you will see watery "skim" looking milk. I've noticed that, when I was trying to build up my milk supply, I would pump for a few minutes right after nursing, and the milk that I would pump would be very thick and creamy, whereas if I pump to "replace" a feeding (like if I miss a feeding because of work) the milk would start out watery and gradually get thicker. The watery milk is good for your baby because she gets all her fluids from your milk- she doesn't need to drink any extra water when she is exclusively breastfeeding.

Allison - posted on 05/01/2009

There's a really great article http://www.mother-2-mother.com/mothercon... that shows what milk looks like and what is normal. It sounds like your milk is fine, but definitely check out this - I found it very informative.

Amanda - posted on 05/01/2009

I think you may be referring to the separation that happens to pumped breastmilk more so refrigerated cooled breastmilk. Since fresh breatmilk is not pasteurized and processed like cows milk and formula that we see this is milk in its' natural state! The best and most perfect food for your child. I have pumped my milk for both of my girls while I was at work for many months and this is just naturally how breastmilk looks after it sits for a while especially when it is cooled. As for it looking watery, sometimes breastmilk can look watery depending on what time of the day you pumped it and just in general some breastmilk can look thin. In my opinion, if a persons' child is healthy, gaining and not having any problems then most likely there is no reason to worry about anything with your milk. As long as you follow the breastmilk storage guidelines your little guy is getting the perfect food only in bottle form while you have to be away from him. It sounds like he is right on schedule for his weight at the age he is!!!. A lot of well meaning people might make comments on how breastmilk looks and think that there might be something wrong with it only because it doesn't look like cows milk or formula, but these people have probably just not seen any fresh milk at all in its' natural unaltered state. Mother nature does not make something that is wrong to feed your baby. I am sure your milk is fine! Good luck to you and your beautiful healthy child!