Tiktok, please can you explain the foremilk/hindmilk thing here, once and for all, so we can all link to this thread when other people ask?

[hunkermonkee]

Thanks.

You must be tired of writing it out every time it's asked about, but it is v important, isn't it? In fact, I can always C&P it from another thread...!

bump up - always intresting to read and get extra info on the boob front!

I have written about it loads of times, yes :)

for instance, \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1364&threadid=171968&stamp=060510112809#3579640\here} and it's always good to read more on kellymom.com.

Too late at the moment to write it all out again, but if you have any Qs, ask them and I'll look tomorrow :)

Slightly different... I was given wonky information when DD was tiny and just assumed it was true, but it doesn't make much sense with your explanation...

Why is it that in very hot weather when DS or DD won't settle and will only feed for about 2 mins each feed during the day (and looking at the dribble they are still trying to get a thicker mix), they end up with greeny nappies?

Is it related or just a coincidence and I have odd babies?

Not worrying, just interested in the sciencey side.

quote from tikrok may 10th 2006 (she's an nct counsellor, I am lowly unicer trained bod)

'There is so much confusion about foremilk and hindmilk and the way it is described in certain baby books only adds to the misunderstanding. The breast does not make two different types of milk. It is all one. The creamier part and the watery part separate a bit - the watery part tends to trickle down the ducts, and the creamier part sticks to the storage cells in the breast. When the baby starts to suck the let-down pushes the creamier parts down the ducts, and yes, this gets mixed with the watery parts in the ducts already. A mother with a responsive let-down and a baby who sucks and swallows efficiently work together well, and the baby just gets what he needs in the time he needs to get it. It is ludicrous to tell mothers they have to have their babies on for a certain number of minutes otherwise the baby won't get 'the hindmilk'. Gina Ford says this and it drives me nuts - as if every mother and baby were the same, and behaved in the same way and had the same physiology. There is no 'the' hindmilk and no 'the' foremilk. It's all just milk; the emptier the breast, the creamier the milk, and the fuller the breast, the more watery the milk...this is why babies left to themselves regulate their own intake and why at least one study has shown that they all get more or less the same amount of calories, even if their feeding length and frequency has been very different. There's a good explanation here \link{http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/foremilk-hindmilk.html\at kellymom They use an analogy of a hot water tap - turn it on and the first water you get is not usually hot because it has been at the end of the pipe for a while and has cooled. As the water runs, it gets hotter as the hot water from the tank comes up the pipe. If you turn on the tap again after just a few moments, then the initial water you get out will be warm....leave it an hour and it will be cold. The analogy doesn't really hold for the emptiness/fullness bit, though.

eek postecd wrog place old thread alert