Virginia wrote,
<< With =
 multiple letdowns in multiple feeds through the day, the "foremilk" late =
 in the day may even have more fat that the "hindmilk" at the first, =
 high-volume feed.  >>


I think the question here is, what do we actually mean by these terms?  When
I think of this myself or explain it to others, I use "hindmilk" not to mean
"last bit at a given feeding" but rather "creamier milk that comes down from
a relatively emptier breast."   And foremilk the opposite, of course.

So I wouldn't talk about the "higher fat foremilk" after many letdowns.
Instead, I'd say that when you're real full, the baby is getting a pretty
high-in-foremilk feeding -- maybe we'd even call it an all-foremilk feeding,
and in fact he's still really getting foremilk when you go back to the same
breast half an hour later, since you haven't really emptied it enough the
first time to get the really creamy stuff.   And contrariwise, in the late
afternoon maybe the little one goes back to the breast every fifteen minutes,
since the volume is low -- but it's all creamy lovely hindmilk, so don't try
to hold him off, just let him enjoy.

I like this way of using the terms for two reasons.  First, it describes the
milk, not the clock, which is both more accurate, and also orients our own
and the mothers attention more where it ought to be.  And second, it tends to
account in a simple way for more phenomena --  like the cluster feeding in
the evening, and the fact that fat varies through the day not only through
the feeding, in addition to the obvious one of oversupply-colic, may its name
be blotted out! -- so that when I use to with experienced mothers, right away
I see their heads nodding.

(I've just finished reading a truly wonderful book about the way people
learn, called The Having of Wonderful Ideas, by Eleanor Duckworth, in which
she emphasizes that even the seemingly simplest ideas turn out to be richer
and more complicated if a person, or better still a group, gives itself time
and protected space to really delve into them.  And I said to myself, "Oh,
right, Lactnet!")

Elisheva
chewing on lactation (and lately also being chewed on by it, but that's a
different problem :) )

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