Breast feeding question????

Question

I breast fed my son for the first 2 weeks of life. He is now 3 1/2 weeks. I had to suppliment him on formula to make his bowels move more frequently and help to rid him of jaundice. This was about a week and a half ago. Since supplimenting, needless to say, I am not breast feeding as much and now my milk has turned rather clear looking.

I havent been feeding him this portion of my milk when I pump, because I am unsure if it is healthy or not.

Has this happened to anyone else and if so, what is it?

Am I losing my milk? Has it spoiled from less feeding or what?

Can I get it back to normal or are my breast feeding days over?


Thanks.

Answer 1

Your breastmilk is always good for your baby. Breastmilk can have different looks/tints sometimes depending on what you eat, but it is normal.

Your milk may start to dry up, if you aren't bfing or pumping frequently. This is a very important time when your body is establishing your supply (the first 6 weeks). Your body will produce more milk the more your baby nurses and the more you pump. Nursing your baby more tells your body that your baby wants more milk, and your body will make more milk.
Your milk will never spoil inside of you. It's possible for it to spoil if it's pumped, but you would not be able to tell this from looking at it. You would only be able to tell by smelling it, or tasting a drop. If it's bad it smells terrible. But it takes 5-7 days to go bad in the fridge.

Just nurse when the baby wants to nurse and your body will take care of the rest. Breastfeeding can be so hard sometimes because we don't have ounce marks on our breasts or anything. But you will get the hang of it.

Answer 2

Your breastmilk will never spoil until it's outside of you. My milk looks watery, especially at the beginning. I drink A LOT of water, so maybe that's the reason? The only way to get your supply up is to express more. If your baby is feeding every 2 hours, pump 45 minutes after you feed him. It may seem wasted because you won't get much, but in a few days, you'll realize you can drop the pumping and go back to only breastfeeding. Or maybe even freezing the excess and having a backup supply- wonderful!

Answer 3

You are probably noticing the change from 'transition' milk to your 'mature' milk when you say you notice it being clear looking now. That or you werent paying attention as much before because it is clear at the beginning then becomes more like the milk we are used to seeing as you continue feeding your baby/pumping. Just because it looks clear does NOT mean it is not nutritional or worth while to give to your baby. Around 85% of your breastmilk is water so I've read, but your baby needs to be hydrated so no worries about this.

Your milk can NOT spoil while still in your breasts. The only worry you should be concerned about is a reduction in the AMOUNT of breastmilk your body is producing. By not breastfeeding as often, your body will compensate by decreasing the production of milk the following day - thinking your baby isnt needing as much as your body is producing. There's really only one sure way to increase your milk, and that is by breastfeeding/pumping more often. LLL suggested to have a weekend of non-stop breastfeeding to get my levels back up after I too started to supplement my daughter for a short period of time due to Dr's advice. I ended up changing Dr's after that to one supportive of breastfeeders as my old one didnt know a thing about it and turned all new mothers to bottles.

Answer 4

Just from reading your question I can say that you were given bad medical advice to supplement to rid him of the jaundice and make his bowels more frequent as formula tends to have the opposite effect on babies!

I would go back to exclusively nursing him and stop supplementing. Your breastfeeding days are FAR from over! Just nurse, nurse, nurse. Breastmilk is much better at getting rid of jaundice than formula.

You say his bowels needed to move more frequently. How infrequent were they? A breastfed baby should have 6-8 wet diapers a day and at least 1 dirty diaper a day for the first 6 weeks of life. That is the minimum. After the first 6 weeks of life, they should continue to have at least 6-8 wet diapers a day but it is normal and healthy for an exclusively breastfed baby to go as many as 12-14 days b/w dirty diapers after 6 weeks of life.

It is ALWAYS best to check ANY advice that an MD gives you concerning breastfeeding and/or infant nutrition w/ a lactation consultant and then ALWAYS follow what the lactation consultant says. Many MDs simply do not have that much education in the field of lactation whereas lactation consultants do.

Answer 5

A few things to remember. Even though you're giving the formula to get rid of the jaundice, you should pump and dump, pump and save or nurse in between to keep your supply good. You're body is still getting used to producing milk. Don't stop now.
As for the color, it always varies. It really depends on what you put in. Good luck.

Answer 6

the clear milk you describe sounds like the premilk which quenches babies thirest, after a while the milk turns more white which fills babies up
if you stop supplementing with formula your milk will increase and catch up to bubs requirements again
the reason it has backed off is because you have given bottles and your body thinks you bub doesnt need as much
keep giving it a go as its so much easier when out and about to breast feed than to take along bottles

Answer 7

The content of your breast milk changes with the different needs of your growing baby. As the content changes, so will the appearance. You will notice changes a few times as your baby grows. How many changes depends (obviously) on how long you breastfeed.

As already stated, your breastmilk does not go off while in your breast, so there is nothing to worry about.

Congrats on your new bub.

Answer 8

oooh from memory( has been a while) .. that first bit of milk that you are expressing .. is VERY IMPORTANT for the baby to recieve as it contains the anti-bodies that your baby needs to help his immune system... it has a name and for the life of me i can't remember what it is

The more you pump the more you will produce ( THAT i remember because NOBODY bothered to tell me that and I ended up looking like a prize winning milking cow ... lol) so you can get back to normal ...

and the longer you can breast feed your baby the better for the baby.. NB BUT I DO NOT SAY THAT to make non-breast feeding mum's feel guilty .. we all make our own choices.

Answer 9

Try this if you have a breast pump , pump your breast 15 min per breast every 2 hours for a week it worked for me. breast feeding works on supply and demand in order to make milk you must continue to feed . brast milk doesnt have a specific color dont panic if it looks a little thin and try taking a prenatal supplement it helped me

Answer 10

The clear milk is probably foremilk. It's more watery. Your milk wont spoil. If you drink lots of water, pump often/nurse and take vitamins you can get your supply up.