Pat I find this fascinating and would love to investigate it. My particular
slant being relactation/induced lactation/adoptive breastfeeding I would
love to look at how the milk composition of adoptive mothers changes over a
lactation and how the milk differs depending on the age of the child would
also be veryinteresting (my own situation being one where I relactated for a
3.5 year old 6 years after weaning a previous child- what was the
composition of the I made initially when I was just pumping, after my child
started breastfeeding and and what is the composition of my milk now-8
months down the track). Now that it looks like I have an academic address
(about which I am stoked!) I will soon have the ability to apply for
research grants (though $$ are very thin on the ground in Australia) and so
it may happen. Do you have refs you can point me to that discuss this two
way adjustment of milk composition?
Karleen Gribble
Australia

> Of course, we all know now that the fat varies with the fullness of the
> breast when the milk is collected. But differences are present for other
> nutrients as well as the baby grows. The conclusion was that it is baby's
> *saliva* that sends a message of his nutritional needs through the nipple
> (which we know is a two-way conduit) with each feeding and the milk is
> programmed to that need. It is similar to the way that baby's saliva
> stimulates antibodies from the mother when baby has been exposed to
infection.
>
> In Kangaroo Mother Care the tiny premies are at the breast and the milk of
> their mothers is very different from what it would be if the mothers were
> just pumping. The pumped milk that has not been "programmed" by the baby's
> suckling may not be adequate in some of the nutrients that are being
tested
> for and, thus, in some hospital settings the missing nutrients are added
 with fortifiers.
> It is not a lack in breastmilk but a lack of opportunity for baby to
> stimulate her needed nutrients in the proper concentrations unique to her
> in her mother's milk. If a tiny premie is not able (or not allowed) to
> suckle at the breast her mother can get saliva from baby's mouth and rub
it
> onto her nipples. That helps in the programing.
>
> I had a client whose baby had a bruised tongue after the birth and he
> couldn't feed at the breast or with a bottle. Mom had a good supply and
fed
> the baby with a spoon. Her milk was milk-white. When baby healed and began
> suckling at the breast sometimes (about 2 weeks) she called me in alarm.
> "My milk is dark yellow!) The volume was bountiful still but baby had
said,
> "I didn't get my colostrum," and his saliva stimulated the breasts to add
> colostrum for about 3 days.  Then the milk returned to white.
>
> I have seen this repeated many times with mothers who are pumping and
whose
> babies did not feed adequately at the breast before the mature milk came
> in. I have come to expect it. You know the look of the early transitional
milk.
>

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