Helen,

This is totally off the top of my head, by deductive reasoning only.

Perhaps you asked this question partially because so many sea mammals
that live in cold waters have so much more fat in their milk? Or that
native peoples on a native diet consume blubber, and therefore get a lot
of fat in older child/adult diet, and that their babies must also need
this, or that because of the cold, these people need more body fat for
energy and insulation?

I think I have read that the general amount of fat in mammalian milk is
species specific. If, in the case of humans, a complete collection of 24
hour milk output were well mixed and then a sample of the total analyzed,
I seem to remember that there would be a very limited consistent % range
as the normal.

One of the problems with milk analysis for amount of fat is that not all
researchers do it that way. If only an immediate sample is analyzed,
whatever amount of fat is found depends on what point in the feeding
(before or after breast has been thoroughly "drained", even differing
from time of day to time of day due to this "relative thoroughness of
drainage" factor.

Human babies can make fat out of carbohydrate and water, so if they
consume more calories than they need for growth and energy use, they
could put on any needed insulation. But it is my impression that any
human baby's temperature regulation is so delicate that he needs  the
protection of contact with other bodies - parents/siblings/other
relatives/family friends/animals, etc. in an indoor (igloo?) setting and
the addition of appropriate clothing/shelter outdoors.

It is my bet that native women don't worry about switching breasts
religiously as we have taught women in developed countries in the last 4
decades. So babies drain one breast or the other breast thoroughly many
times a day and so get the advantage of hindmilk the same concentration
as babies at the equator would if so nursed.

Talkative mood today. Just my $.02 worth.

Jean
*****************************************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

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