This is "weaning" milk. As the milk dries up it becomes saltier. The baby
refuses the breast because the milk supply is low, not because it is salty,
though, I suppose, once it starts to taste salty he could reject it because
of that as well. Babies respond to milk flow and if flow is slow they often
will pull off the breast very quickly. In this case, perhaps the mother
always had a lower supply on one side and as the baby nursed less and less,
the milk production dropped.

This is where that medical myth of high salt milk causing hypernatremic
dehydration comes from. A perfect example of how you can take one set of
data and make two different interpretations of those data. The "scientist"
measures the sodium content of the milk and concludes the baby is
hypernatremic from drinking salty milk. The LC, who takes the trouble to
watch the breastfeeding, instead of the laboratory results, notices the baby
is not breastfeeding, only *pretending* to breastfeed. The baby has
hypernatremic dehydration because he is not breastfeeding, not getting any
fluid. The milk is salty because the mother's body interprets the baby's
"nursing" as no need to produce milk because there is no baby nursing.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC

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