Someone in the forums asked me to explain the idea of hind milk and fore milk. Most women don’t even need to worry about it. Your milk comes when it comes and is perfectly designed to meet the needs of your baby. Your baby instinctively knows how long to suck and when. When he’s thirsty, you’ll notice that he sucks lightly and doesn’t nurse as long. However, when your baby is really hungry, you’ll notice that his suck is much harder and he’ll tend to nurse much longer in this manner on one side or the other. This is because he is going for the richer, fattier hind milk.
Hind milk, as the name implies, is the milk that is behind the fore milk. It is fattier and more calorie dense milk. In a normal breastfeeding session, your baby will get both. If you pump, you’ll notice a two toned kind of milk with some of the milk being kind of translucent and some of the milk being a creamy white. That technically is the hind milk. If you’re really into science, pump a bottle of milk and let it sit out on the counter for awhile. You’ll see the milk separate into two distinctive layers. . .one being much fattier than the other. That’s hind milk and foremilk.
An Imbalance
As I mentioned before, most women don’t have to worry about an imbalance of hind milk vs. fore milk. Your body just knows what to do and your baby regulates it. However, if you’ve ever taken your baby to the pediatrician and they’ve said the baby hasn’t gained enough weight, it is possible that the issue is a hind milk/ fore milk imbalance. There are numerous reasons this happens but general scenarios include when the baby has to stay in the hospital and/or breastfeeding multiples.
Many women pump early on when their babies are born thinking that they want to build a freezer stash. Most of you who are around in the forums a lot have heard me say not to pump until at least six weeks. One reason is that pumping can ‘teach’ your breasts to make too much foremilk.
If you have an imbalance of hind milk/fore milk your baby will show the following symptoms:
*watery, greenish seedy bowel movements
*gassiness after feeding
*general fussiness and not seeming satisfied at the breast (this is because in fact they’re not. . .they’re hungry.)
*failure to gain weight properly
Correcting an Imbalance
To correct an imbalance the easiest thing to do is to only offer the same breast for an extended length of time. I would generally advise to start by offering one side for twelve hours and then the other side for twelve hours and see if the problem is corrected. If not, you might need to offer one side for 24 hours.
Relieve the other breast by hand expression. . .not by pumping, if possible. You should not let your other breast become painful. If it does, by all means, dig out that pump!
As always, feel free to PM me any questions you might have about breastfeeding and I’ll do my best to answer!
Related Articles:
How Pumping Sabotages the New Mom
Beware of the Breastfeeding Support Bag
Should I Wake My Baby to Breastfeed?