I worked with a mom whose baby was taking in plenty of milk and having
adequate voiding, but stools were sometimes green.  Baby was not gaining
much at all.  Mom was very thin, as were the rest of the family.  They did
eat a rather low-fat diet so she increased her fats, which didn't change
things. Baby was a very happy, playful one and seemed to not be aware that
anything was wrong in her life. She got none of the colds, etc, that her
siblings had.

Mom was most determined to breastfeed only, because of allergies in herself
and her two older children, who weren't breastfed for the same problem. I
learned at that time that food sensitivities in baby can contribute to low
weight gain.

I read Ruth Lawerence on milk composition and diet, having to read the
section several times with squinted eyes and holding my breath before I
could understand the paragraph. What she "seems" to be saying is that foods
high in cholesterol do not change the amount of fat, but the kind of fat,
and those fats will be used by baby to gain weight.

This mom was pumping and using SNS to enhance intake to the max, and there
was a very *thin* line of fat on her milk( almost invisible).  She called
her aunt who was on a low choles. diet and asked what she couldn't eat.  My
client began to eat all of those foods that she could.  The fat level did
visibly increase on her pumped milk. Her baby's stools were yellow and
baby's weight began to increase.

I know that everything says diet doesn't affect the fat composition of
milk, but I wonder if that is one of those absolutes that we will discover
to have been wrong. There are still a couple of things that we don't
know--yet.

Changing diet did help this mother and baby. Baby continued to be
healthy--good immune system--and to gain slowly.  When she began solids,
which concentrated on fats, by the way, she gained more. Her developmental
milestones are right on.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee,Wisconsin, Upper Midwest, USA
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