Question on exclusive expressing and foremilk/hindmilk

[JoEW]

Hi - wondering if anyone has some advice...long-winded story, sorry....

I am just home with my new baby, he's five weeks old with a corrected age of minus two weeks, as born at 32 weeks. He has been in the SCBU and I have been expressing and feeding breastmilk exclusively. I haven't managed to get breastfeeding nailed for a variety of reasons but I continue to try and hope to see a consultant this week.

My son has a very distended stomach and clearly had some issues with wind. Sometimes he seems in real discomfort and won't feed, he will feed hungrily whenever he has had a good bowel movement. The doctors have seen him every day over the past five weeks and do not think there's any medical reason for it so I am trying to work out if there's another cause. I don't think he has colic. I have read that too much foremilk can cause stomach issues and green poo, he has both, so I wondered if anyone knew much about this and how to correct it if that does seem to be the problem.

Any advice helpful!

There aren't two seperate milks, but your milk has a higher fat percentage the more empty your breasts are. A deep latch when bfing can also help with the release of fat molecules (or so I was told by an infant feeding specialist) - I suppose that could translate to using compressions when pumping.

If you pump until the milk slows pretty much to nothing, then you should get a balanced milk nutritionally. If you often pump to take the edge off, but not all you can, the pumped milk could be lower in fat.

My DD had weight and feeding issues after a short SCBU stay and a shallow latch, meaning not enough fattier milk did cause her to have green poo (Pesto poos!) and also weight issues.

If your were breastfeeding directly I think the suggestion would be block feeding - feeding off one side for a period of 3-4 hours, and then switching to the other side. This can lower your supply though.