Watery b'milk - nutrition advice

unless you pumped all your milk exclusively for a few days to a week and then combined all that milk and had that analysed by a lab I'd be pretty skeptical of your conclusion that your milk is "too watery". I've def seen that sort of ratio in my own milk when pumped, esp morning milk. Its important to realise (and maybe you know all this but I'm writing it so that any other new mums reading don't "test" their own milk freak out when they see the same) that the fat content of your milk varies wildly throughout the day, generally in the morning the fat content is low and in the evening/night it is highest. There is also seasonal variation (in summer there is more water in your milk as mother nature recognizes the greater need for hydration, a baby fed on cue will drink more frequently so as to get the same amount of nutrition as well as the extra water, one of the main reasons it is never necessary to give water to an EBF baby) Also the more "full" your breast the lower the fat content and the more the milk will separate into "foremilk" and "hindmilk". Basically the milk is not made in two parts, the separation only occurs when the full breast is not emptied frequently, as in the case of 3/4 hourly scheduled feeding. In this case the initial letdown is low fat high carb and the baby will need to suck for longer to get to the creamy "hindmilk". The reason they don't advise only giving part of the milk to your baby is that there are important nutirents in both parts, the "foremilk" is high in milk sugar and water soluable vitammins, the hindmilk is high in fat and fat soluble vitimins etc, baby needs the carbs as well as the fats. Its been shown that the volume of milk should be increased, not the fat content (which is pretty impossible to change via diet anyway). As jillp says the only way to increase the fat content is to change your feeding/pumping habits to more frequent feeds, its reasonable to expect this would probably result in your baby taking an overall higher volume of milk too as their is only so much you can squeeze into a little tummy in one go. You might want to read [url=http://www.drmomma.org/2010/01/case-for-cue-feeding.htm'>this article[/url'>l here is an excerpt; [i'>"Prefeed fat is inversely related to the length of the interfeed interval, which means that feed frequency influences milk fat concentration. Thus feed frequency, one of the key parameters of feed patterning, shows a direct relationship to milk fat concentration and so would appear capable of exerting a direct influence on milk quality.................... "Overall, the fat concentration of milk taken at feeds would appear to be maximized both by increasing feed frequency and milk volume removal (which itself is a combination of unrestricted feed duration and optimal positioning), yet in Western hospitals it has been common in the past to impose restrictions on both feed frequency and feed duration to the likely detriment of the baby's fat intake. Such restrictions may well have resulted in iatrogenic problems of breastfeeding, which would include fat restriction (resulting in unsettled behavior), symptoms of breast milk insufficiency, and underfeeding."[/i'>

Even though it's debatable whether diet actually affects your milk, I think it does (contrary to some scientific research out there - what do they know?! lol!), I would look at what you eat in a hollistic way. Scoffing a bag of peanuts is a bit extreme, but for example, are you drinking full-fat milk? Using butter and not lo-fat spread (which has no goodness in it at all)? Eating a balanced diet with as much fresh produce as possible? Also, you milk changes to suit the climate, so for example, if it's really hot, your milk will become slightly more watery because the focus swings to also keeping your baby hydrated, as well as providing nutrition. I've never got really scientific about my milk - never analysed it or worried about it... and most of the time never saw it! Try not to worry - your body will react differently for each baby, so there's little reason to assume that you will have the same issues as before.

Breast milk isn't really affected too much by how much you eat, but more by the type of foods you eat - by taking more protein and fats of any type it slightly alters the fat content, but not by much. The best way to produce higher fat levels is to make the breast produce more milk - but frtequent feeeding or but expressing. There has been a lot of research recently about the foremilk and hind milk - it was fashionable for a while to throw away fore milk and only feed hind milk to undernourished babies. But this appears to have gone full circle and is now being ignored again. Relax and enjoy your pregnancy, and just see how things go when baby number two starts to feed.