Maybe someone here can explain this to me, then.  My understanding is that
breasts make one kind of milk, then the longer it sits in the breasts, the
more the fat separates and clings to duct walls.  Then when baby goes to
feed, he gets drowned in the lower-fat milk and fills up volume-wise before
much of the fat washes down.  Ok, so far, so good - then what about the
*next* feed - either

1) baby doesn't wait long to feed again because the feed didn't end up being
that satisfying, and then gets fresher milk whose fat hasn't separated out,
plus some of the higher fat milk and unused fat left behind at the last feed
must wash down now, too, so the imbalance begins to correct.  Or...

2) baby waits longer to feed again, being overfull from the high volume of
the lower-fat milk.  In which case the fat from the newly made milk again
separates out and fat is building up inside the ducts??

Bottom line, I don't see how you can have a sustained imbalance of feeding
baby "foremilk" - if mom is always making the same kind of milk, where does
the fat go if not into the baby eventually, no matter what their nursing
pattern is?  Does mom reabsorb fats through the duct walls?  That would
explain a lot... but would mean that moms with higher storage capacity
breasts feed their children lower fat milk overall, and that doesn't make
much sense either.

I'd appreciate any illumination on this subject - I've asked several more
experienced people through the years and not been satisfied yet!

-Rosemary McNaughton
LLLL, NMC Counselor
Northampton, Massachusetts, USA

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:07 AM, Pat Young <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> First breast has foremilk and hind milk, 2nd breast has homogenized milk
> LOL.  Poor gain and frothy green stools with  the hyperlacting mom is
> usually due to short feeds on each side and baby is drowning in milk. That's
> why block feeding to tamp down supply seems to work so well.  Whoever
> thought in 1965 that we would be seeing oversupply problems in 2011?  LOL.
> Pat in SNJ
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