FOREMILK-HINDMILK IMBALANCE: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention including how foremilk-hindmilk imbalance negatively affects a baby’s poop
🎯We have been getting lots of questions about the nature of a baby’s poo and we wish to tell you about this.
🎯”Fore” simply means at the front while “hind” means at the back. Every breastfeeding mother produces foremilk and hindmilk.
🎯If you have ever expressed your breastmilk, You will observe that the initial milk that comes out is light and watery (this is the foremilk). Then as you keep expressing, the thick, milky one starts coming out (that is the hindmilk).
👂👂Now pay attention as this is important.
📍The foremilk is very rich in lactose but contains less fat.
📍The hindmilk contains less lactose and more fat.
🎯Lactose is a type of sugar that is in almost all milk products which when taken in excess can draw water from your body and you pass explosive watery poo poo. It also makes the stomach gassy and the person farts a lot. That is what happens when you as an adult drink lots of milk!!!
🎯Foremilk-hindmilk imbalance occurs when a baby takes more foremilk (which has plenty lactose) and less hindmilk (which has plenty fat).
What could make a baby take more foremilk than hindmilk? Causes
◾Feeding for short periods on the breast, so that before the hindmilk starts coming out, the mother has transferred the baby to the other breast for? More foremilk!
◾The mother has an over supply of milk. Because their milk supply is so much, before the baby gets to the hind milk, the baby is already filled up.
🔶️What will you notice when a breastfeeding baby has this imbalance?🔶️ Symptoms
◾ The baby poos frequently, and the poos are explosive! (Some mums will claim the child had jedi jedi🙂)
◾The stools are watery and could be greenish in colour (they still think its jedi jedi🙂)
◾The baby farts a lot (Is it still jedi jedi?🤔)
◾The baby has more colics
◾The baby may not be gaining weight adequately (ofcourse, you have placed the baby on low fat diet😄)
◾The baby will want to suck the breast more frequently (Pikin dey chop the light foremilk which no dey hold belle like thick fatty hindmilk😄)
🔷️How can you prevent this?🔷️
✅Ensure the baby sucks one breast for at least 20 to 25 minutes before you go to the other breast.
✅At the next feeding time, start with the breast you gave the baby last.
✅Ensure one breast has been emptied very well before offering the other one
✅If you breastmilk supply is so much, you can start by expressing it a little or catch the initial milk coming out in a cloth before allowing the baby to suck.
Hope this answers a lot of your questions.
CREDIT: Adopted from PAEDIATRICIANS GIVE ANSWERS by the NIMEDHEALTH to help educate and reach a larger audience.
