I'd like to echo Pamela's response. I've long noticed that the milk of women with low supply does tend to look like it is a higher fat content and some of the articles that Cathy Genna posted on Lactnet a while back that debunked the notion that mothers who have more foremilk have babies that fail to thrive.  In those studies it was VOLUME, not fat content that made the difference and mothers who had a higher volume of milk tended to have a lower fat content.  It has long seemed to me that the increase in fat near the end of the feeding is PROTECTIVE for the infants of women who have lower milk storage capacity because the baby can get to the higher fat more quickly and compensate to a certain extent for a lower volume.  All life is created to be adaptive and this is one adaptation that can help infants.  

Yes, please do publish this.  I am so tired of women with low supply pushing their babies to eat longer on a breast that has been depleted to get to the hindmilk.  I have been telling them for quite a while that their babies are likely to get their more quickly than mothers with a larger milk storage capacity so they can switch sooner -- as soon as the baby is no longer capable of removing milk.

Best, Susan Burger

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