How do I produce more hindmilk

[Pennies]

Further to my query yesterday about green poo I also compared my expresed milk with that of my mate's and we both reckon that the cause of the green poo is a lack of fatty hindmilk in my milk, which would explain why she went all yellow again with formula yesterday.

She's 5.5 months and takes both boobs at every feed, and always drains them both so I think this backs up the lack of hindmilk theory (it seems most babies her age only seem to take 1 boob, so her taking two suggests that she's needing that much milk to get enough calories to grow). It would also explain why her poo is green, why she poos and wees so much (after EVERY feed, almost without fail) and why she's also growing well.

So.... the thing is, how do I produce more hindilk? I already eat a varied & healthy diet (inc. porridge oats every morning).

pennies, nothing you say here or on the other thread makes me think you need to be concerned about this. Green poo in an otherwise thriving and growing baby is not an issue.

Hindmilk is not a separate milk you can make more of. There is no such thing as 'the' hindmilk anyway. All milk produced in the breasts is the same....the milk gets creamier as the milk is removed, that's all, because the fattier components stick to the milk sorage cells. You can't engineer it - this is how it works. Diet will make no difference, and nor does it need to. Your baby is growing well, she deals with her food normally, maybe she does get less creamier milk than other babies but that would only matter if she was not getting calories and clearly she is or she would not be growing. Maybe the milk does go through her mored quickly. It doesn't matter.

Forget about it

I agree, the only thing I was told by a bf counsellor was to let dd finish the 1st boob, rest say change nappy whatever, then put her back to the same boob again, before letting her on the 2nd after that
But dirty nappies go from lime sorbet to mustard in seconds with a littlun, with seemingly no obvious changes, it's just one of those lovely baby things!
Your baby sounds like she is thriving and doing well - you're obviously doing a grand job there!

I agree with Tiktok. If you line up sample bottles of expressed milk from different mothers (which I have done), they all look different. Each mother's milk is unique. At 5 months old you definately should not be worrying about hindmilk deficiency. Just feed her as she wants and don't overanalyse it. My babies always took both boobs at each feed and sometimes back on again so in effect had 4 If she pees, poos and is growing well who vares about the colour of her poos
She does not need formula.

agree about the milk looking different, i expressed a lot and it varied from gold-top full cream to thinnish milk with a greenish hue (after eating spinach) and have 2 v healthy dds. dd2 still swaps sides (she's 22 mths) at least once during her morning/night feeds and she was exclusively breastfed for 6 mths.

You produced more hindmilk by feeding longer from that boob. If you are worried about green poos, then you want to discourage "snacking" - ie quick feeds here and there. But if your baby is getting too active to feed for a long time, feed predominantly from one boob for several feeds.

My kids went through long phases of green poos, but AFAICT, it hasn't done them any harm.

Pennies, Tiktok offered me the same (very good!) reassurance when I was in the same situation as you, albeit with a younger baby.

I had tried expressing immediately after feeds to encourage more of the richer milk, and I had also tried expressing before feeds to take off more of the foremilk. Neither worked, and although we would all love to think that there must be a "scientific" explanation or solution to every issue, boobs and babes don't read books!

I wish now that I hadn't lost quite as much sleep over green poo as I did, as it just changed back after I had given up all hope that it ever would, and she continued to thrive.

My 7.5 mth old ds always takes both boobs, unlike his dd. Poo is/was all sorts of wonderful colours.
Don't worry about it for a second!

Errrr...my dd that is. Not his!!

My two week old baby often wants both breasts!

How is the little one (and you of course!) Aloha??

She's great. Sleeping atm and I'm chatting with ds while catching up a bit here. She's gaining weight well, eats for England, seems a happy little soul and is very beautiful, of course! Ds seems to love her....not sure he realises she's permanent yet though
Feel very proud of them both - had all three children at the weekend (inc my stepdaughter) and that was lovely.

But Anner, there is a scientific explanation - green poo is that way because it hasn't stayed long enough in the gut to change to yellow, and it hasn't stayed, prob because there is less fat in the milk (fat slows down gut transit time), but maybe because (for whatever reason) the baby's metabolism has hurried it through. The main point though, is that in a healthy, growing baby, it doesn't matter a bit.....: ) oh, and Pennies, it doesn't matter whether your baby takes one breast, two breasts, three or four....babies do all of this, at different ages and stages.

Glad to hear things are great, aloha

Sorry, inappropriate use of "scientific" - I think that what I mean is more along the lines of "formulaic" or "predictable" , ie we like to have explanations along the lines of "if you do a, b and c, then x, y and z will be the result.

Strange; I readily accept when my PC appears not to have read its own manual, but cried and worried for days over my baby seemed not to have done likewise!

Sorry, am I wrong in saying that the newer school of thought is that there isn't foremilk and hindmilk, just 'milk'? But perhaps the very first bit of milk that comes through when sucked may be a little less watery than the rest, but nothing to write home about?

Also, I thought that you boobs can't be 'emptied' as such as they continue to produce milk constantly. Or is it that at a feed the side being fed from the milk may slow down, and so this is the reason to swop sides?

Just want to make sure as I am BF DS 3.5 mths).

x

I've heard this too, mum2ela, namely that the hindmilk is richer because it is less watery, rather like you would see with a regular bottle of milk if left to stand.
Amounts to same thing though I suppose

Mum2ela - it's not a new school of thought. There has always been just 'milk' - the breasts do not produce different sorts of milk. The creamier milk sticks to the inside of the storage cells and the less creamy components trickle down to the front of the breast. Gradually, as milk is removed by the baby, the milk becomes creamier. You're right - the breasts are never totally empty. The amount of fat in the milk is directly proportional to the amount of milk - less milk means the milk there is creamier. But sometimes babies want to/need to swap sides to get a faster flow, and a fuller breast.

I think all Midwives and nurses who deal with babies in SCBU etc should do proper BFing courses. I was told a lot of crap when I was BFing ds1 and got myself into a right state and gave up at 14 weeks. This time round I have just listened to Tiktok and Mears and it is going swimmingly and I have no intention of giving up. It makes me so cross that such a lot of wrong info is out there and we do get upset if we think we are doing it wrong.

This is not trying to be controversial

Thanks tiktok! Just worry sometimes that I am not feeding DS 'properly', and it made me worry more recently when hv told me DS wasn't putting on as much weight as they would like and that I should 'feed him a bit more'! Which I hence didn't do! He is fine, he's my baby and I know he is fine.

x

mum2ela, good thinking

my baby has had mucousy poos sometimes with traces of blood for a couple of months. he's breast fed but doc wants him to switch to hypo allerginic formula which he hates because it tastes foul. could it be a foremilk hindmild imbalance? He's still quite big for his 23 weeks, but has had a few weeks where he hasn't put on weight.

Switch to a more breastfeeding friendly doctor, ruty....am I right that you are not in the UK? In which case, you could see a lactatin consultant. I don't know what could be causing blood traces, but stopping breastfeeding is a big deal...some mothers have found that their babies are highly sensitive and although diet is not an issue for the majority of mothers, removal of known allergens can make a difference.

Blood would not be explained by the baby getting 'too much' foremilk anyway - a baby who is thriving is getting what he needs. A slowing off in weight gain is normal too for babies your baby's age.

ds(4 mnths old) had a few streaks of blood in his quite mucousy and greens poos last week.
needless to say,mild panic ensued.took him to the doc's.referred to the hospital by gp,hours of waiting.left stool sample to be analysed.
doc said she was fairly sure it could be a viral infection in his tummy,bcoz it had been on top of the poo and bright red in color and also the diarrohea was a clue.she wasnt too concerned as he was putting on weight,alert and feeding well.
stool sample came back negative and no precise reason given for the blood,hv said it cdve been a bit of stress bcoz of the diarrhoea...
apparently its only a digestive tract thing when the blood is dark in color bcoz that means its travelled thru the gi tract.
and neway babies do level off in wt gain abt his age dont they?