Nikki said:
I wish that all texts with the descriptions of foremilk ("like skim 
milk") and hind-milk ("the dessert")  would vanish. All these notions seem
to do is worry mothers; the basic idea is  to put baby to breast. Whatever
is in the breast at that moment is perfect. In  this framework, when during
a feed, does the milk switch over to being  hindmilk?


I think the ultrasounds from Peter Hartmann's research lab show the fat
entering the milk when the milk lets down.  The dribbles baby gets prior to
MER are lower in fat content.  Yes, the fat content in the milk is higher
closer to a previous feed -that makes sense, because the breast starts
filling up with milk to replace that which was removed, thus the fat content
gets diluted as time goes by.  Then, with MER, the fat content goes up again
and yet again with subsequent MER's during the same feed.  I don't know that
you can put a time point on this increase in fat content.  It is a
cumulative effect over the course of a feeding.  So...the fat content at the
end of a feed, after say, 2-3 MER's is higher than at the beginning of the
feed or even after just the first MER.  The starting point (fat content at
the beginning of the feed) is variable based on how close the feeding is to
the last time milk was removed, but the effect still remains -fat content
goes up with each MER.

As for lacto-engineering, the whole point of doing this is because the
baby's intake is limited (say a premie), and it needs to be more calorically
dense.  This is why they use fortifiers for these babies.  They can only
take a limited amount of fluid and they need more calories than what is
usual for that amount of milk.  Lacto-engineering accomplishes at least the
additional calories without using formula company fortifiers.

Marsha

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html