Colostrum question? Maybe a bit silly!

[jellyjelly]

I know that coloumstrum is there as the immune boosting milk (dont know what else to call it) before the milk comes in and that it is there ready and waiting but does it keep making more during the first couple of days before the milk. I know about supply and demand for milk but didnt know if it was the same for columstrum.

I remember the midwife tweaking one of my nips and colostrum coming out - looked a bit like golden syrup. Think this was about day 2 - I think that is what you produce till the milk comes in.

HTH

Yep, it's there till your milk comes in - you keep making it.

Thanks, good to know that the body keeps making it. I remember leaking it from 16 weeks on last pregnancy but didnt manage to give it to ds.

Woah there......I don't know that hunker is right. I have tried to check this and can't find anything that tells me one way or the other.

I honestly don't know if the body makes a finite amount of colostrum, which is at its max immediately after the baby is born, and then is 'used up' gradually over 1-2 or more days. Or if the body makes more colostrum as it is removed.

My guess, and that's all it is, based on what I know about milk production and a vague memory of having read something somewhere, is that the former is right.

The mechanism for making milk based on supply and demand doesn't start until several days after the birth, after mature milk starts to be produced (known as lactogenesis 2).

So it is not in place at a time when colostrum could be replaced.

OTOH I don't know of any situation where the colostrum appears to be 'used up' - but by then, milk is made anyway.

If you can find something that clarifies it, hunker, I'd be interested.

Sorry, wasn't speaking from a scientific viewpoint - but why would your body not produce more? I produced colostrum from about 16 weeks with my first pregnancy and from about 18 weeks with my second (from one side, then when DS1 self-weaned from the other too!).

I can't believe that all the colostrum I was going to use to feed either DS was there from the moment I first produced it, so I figured that your body went on making it (and leaking it IME!).

oh god yes the leaking colostrum.

It would make sense that it would be replaced, if not somewhat more slowly.

My boobs didnt get that big during pg so where else would it be hiding?

I don't think it is all produced in one go and then starts to leak away.....I wondered if it stops being produced, and is not replaced when the baby starts to take it (unlike breastmilk post-colostrum) . So, as I said, maybe production is at its max after the birth, and then colostrum is used up and it is replaced by mature milk.

I don't think you can assume that supply-demand works for colostrum as well as mature milk. The mechanisms for production are different (we know that) and the hormonal profile of the mother is different (ditto).

I think we probably don't know one way or the other :)

I don't think it matters, to be honest :)