>If you were going to do composition analysis of breast milk, what would you
>think of the following methodology:  hand expression of 15 ml, using both
>breasts, 30 minutes after the last breastfeeding, between 9 and 11 am in the
>morning.  Would this give you a good idea of milk composition?

How about expressing until there are greatly diminished returns (as close
to "empty" as possible) and then mixing the expressed breast milk and then
sampling out of the mix?

>Also, is it true that more than 50% of the energy content of breast milk
>comes from the fat?  I would have thought more came from the lactose.

Fat contributes more than twice as many calories per gram; estimate 4
kcal/gram for lactose and 9 kcal/gram for milkfat.  Now one has to decide
how much lactose and milkfat is in the sample (which varies, as we know,
both within a feeding and throughout the day).

>Finally, those of you working with teenage moms, what percentage would you
>say are breastfeeding when they leave the hospital?  Lower than national
>Ross statistics?

My guess is significantly fewer teenage moms are bf when they leave the
hospital (but it's just a guess).

>If one started with a sample of 100 moms, would you expect to have 35 still
>breastfeeding at 6 months postpartum?

Not yet.  Maybe in the next millenium.

Arly in Northern Utah                [log in to unmask]
MS, CLE, IBCLC