"There are not “two kinds of milk.” Despite this common belief, there is no “magic moment” when foremilk becomes hindmilk. As the baby breastfeeds, the increase in fat content is gradual, with the milk becoming fattier and fattier over time as the breast drains more fully. The total milk consumed daily—not the hindmilk—determines baby’s weight gain. Whether babies breastfeed often for shorter periods or go for hours between feedings and feed longer, the total daily fat consumption does not actually vary. Foremilk is not always low-fat. The reason for this is that at the fat content of the foremilk varies greatly, depending on the daily breastfeeding pattern. If the baby breastfeeds again soon after the last feeding, the foremilk at that feeding may be higher in fat than the hindmilk consumed at other feedings. How does this work? Interestingly, foremilk and hindmilk are concepts that really only make sense when longer intervals such as two to three hours or more occur between feedings. The longer the time gap between feedings and the fuller a mother’s breasts become, the greater the difference in fat content between her foremilk and hindmilk. These differences in fat content can vary greatly over the course of a day even among individual mothers. For example, when a long breastfeeding gap occurs during the night, at the next feeding a mother’s foremilk will be lower in fat than during the evening when her baby breastfeeds more often. What really matters. Research indicates that there is no reason to worry about foremilk and hindmilk or to coax a baby to feed longer. As long as a baby is breastfeeding effectively and the mother does not cut feedings short, baby will receive about the same amount of milk fat over the course of a day no matter what the breastfeeding pattern (Kent, 2007). This is because the baby who breastfeeds more often consumes foremilk higher in fat than the baby who breastfeeds less often. So in the end it all evens out. What’s most important to a baby’s weight gain and growth is the total volume of milk consumed every 24 hours. On average, babies consume about 750 mL of milk per day (Kent et al., 2006). As far as growth is concerned, it doesn’t matter if a baby takes 30 mL every hour or 95 mL every three hours, as long as he receives enough milk overall (Mohrbacher, 2010). In fact, researchers have found that whether babies practice the frequent feedings of traditional cultures or the longer intervals common in the West, they take about the same amount of milk each day (Hartmann, 2007) and get about the same amount of milk fat. Let’s simplify breastfeeding for the mothers we help and once and for all cross foremilk and hindmilk off our “worry lists.”
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:32:01 +0000
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