How To Make Breastmilk Fattier? 7 Easy Solution
The fat content of breast milk and its increase is what worries many young mothers. They are concerned about whether the fat in milk is sufficient for the baby. What makes them think so? There could be several reasons for this:
- The child at a certain point stops gaining the necessary weight or develops weight gain issues (the younger the child, the more often he is weighed – at least once a month)
- The child started to breastfeed more often
- The mother expresses the milk and sees that it is bluish – and concludes that the milk fat content of breast milk needs to be increased. After all, we are all used to thinking that the more yellow the milk, the fattier milk it is.
Why Is Breast Milk Fat So Crucial For Infants?
The weight of newborns sometimes triples, and by the time they turn one, they have grown over 10 inches! Their bodies require calories (or energy) to maintain this pace of growth, and these can be found in breast milk fat content.
Fats are important for optimal brain, eye, and nervous system development in addition to being necessary for physical growth. The brain and the region around the nerves contain 60% fat.
The Fat Content Of Breast Milk Depends On Heredity
There are women whose breast milk supply is fatter than others. And the reason behind this is hereditary factors. But that does not mean that the former can successfully feed their babies and the latter are doomed to rely on formula milk. No way! Both can successfully feed their babies. However, some ideas about milk formation are required.
Breasts produce both “forward” and “hind” milk. The milk that comes out initially as your baby begins to breastfeed is called foremilk, and the milk that comes out at the end of the feeding is called hindmilk. Foremilk is more watery, perhaps with a bluish tinge. It digests more quickly. This milk has a lower fat content and more sugar. However, hindmilk is richer in fat and nutrients, so it takes longer to digest and gives your baby a sense of fullness. Conventionally, Watery foremilk is a drink and hindmilk is baby food.
Average Calories And Fats In Breast Milk
You must first have a basic understanding of human milk to comprehend how to make breastmilk fattier. Breast milk contains around 22 kcal and 1.2 grams of fat per ounce. Fats account for roughly 3-5% of all nutrients contained in breast milk, including proteins and minerals.
However, these figures change often during the day. The variances are caused by growing or decreasing fat levels, and breast fullness, and can even be affected by a baby’s age.
Isn’t The Problem With A Hungry Child The Fat Content Of Breast Milk?
It is possible that the child will not latch on to the breast correctly and will not effectively suckle the breast. What does this mean? This means that the child makes great efforts to suck but fails because the nipple is not properly grasped. The child does not actually consume, because he simply does not reach the rear milk, hence, worries and cries. To prevent this from happening, all you have to do is make sure the nipple is properly captured. The lower lip of the baby should face out, and the baby’s lips should almost completely cover the mother’s nipple. This way, the baby will be able to suck more easily, and the milk will flow more freely into his mouth.
During the breastfeeding journey, breastfeeding moms may change their breasts too frequently. As a result, the baby sucks milk from one breast, prompting the mother to switch breasts and the baby to suck milk from the other. The baby’s stomach is only full of milk, and he has not reached the fat in the rear milk. In this case, the mother must keep the baby on one breast for a longer period in order for the fore and hind milk to be sucked.
So, How To Increase The Fat Content Of Breast Milk?
There are several techniques to improve the fat content of breast milk to supply your beloved infant with enough nutritious, fatty milk.
It’s not necessary to test them all at once, but be open to possibilities you hadn’t thought of previously, such as using a breast pump.
Here are some of the most prevalent approaches:
1. Increase Your Consumption Of Unsaturated Fats
The first step for fatter breastmilk is to increase your unsaturated fat intake. The quality of breast milk and its production is determined by your healthy diet. As a result, your baby eats what you consume. Given that information, it would seem logical to ingest healthy fats or unsaturated fats to increase the fat content in breast milk and make it fattier breast milk.
Unsaturated fats found in nuts, eggs, salmon, avocado, vegetable oils, and olive oil can help make breast milk fattier. These fats aid in the reduction of cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. They also aid in blood sugar regulation, making it a win-win situation for both mother and child.
Although these fats are beneficial, they must be consumed in moderation to avoid indigestion.
2. Get More Protein In Your Diet
Increasing your protein intake can help you produce more milk, which implies more fat for your kid. This is another method for increasing the lipid content of your breast milk. Protein-rich healthy foods include lean meats, poultry, portions of fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, and seeds (like flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds ). Consider adding a protein supplement to your diet if you are a vegetarian or do not receive enough protein from your diet alone.
3. Empty the Breast Completely
To guarantee that as much breast milk fat as possible is eliminated, let your infant exclusively use one breast before switching sides.
When your baby feeds and completely empties the breast, they will have eliminated both the foremilk and the hindmilk. However, if you restrict the amount of time your infant nurses per side, they will consume less fatty hindmilk.
4. Breastfeed Your Baby Frequently
As your breasts fill out, the amount of water in your breast milk increases. This is because the quantity of fat in breastmilk will be diluted if you wait longer between feeding session since your breasts will fill with more milk.
The amount of fat in breast milk increases as the number of feedings you give your infant each day increases. You may notice less volume but fatter-looking breast milk if you breastfeed your infant more frequently and pump milk.
5. Start Massaging and Compressing Your Breasts
Breast compression encourages oxytocin production, which helps release fat globules from milk ducts and letdown of breast milk.
To compress them, massage your breasts with your hands or with a tool like a lactation massager. You can do this prior to feeding your baby or beginning a pumping session.
6. Take Supplements
Are you aware that popular supplements might increase the fat content of breast milk? Milk might become fatty breast milk from supplements.
Sunflower Lecithin is one of the most often used supplements for increasing the fat content of milk. This breast milk supplements works by combining the fatty acids and watery components of breast milk to make it more “slippery,” which reduces the viscosity of the milk. Many new moms believe that this could also increase the percentage of fatty acids in breast milk.
All of this is advantageous, but before using any supplements, be sure to see your health care provider.
7. Try Separating The Milk
Another nice tip is to separate the two types of milk on your own. However, this is a technique that is only used by pumping mothers.
It’s OK that some breastfeeding mothers choose to exclusively breastfeed, but if you’re worried that doing so would make your milk fattier, it could be wise to use both pump electric and manual breast pump.
Although electric breast pumps are more expensive than manual ones, you can get high-quality models on Amazon for about $100, and they make the process of pumping much simpler.
Take your pump, turn it on, and start emptying the breast right away.
When your flow of milk stabilizes after a minute or two, stop the pump session, change the storage container for a new one, and then keep pumping until you’re done.
Compare the two containers after you are finished. The foremilk will be much more watery and transparent, making the difference less noticeable to people who are first observing it. It could even have a blueish appearance.
The hindmilk, on the other hand, will seem creamier, more like cow’s milk, and may even be a little bit yellowish. Do not be alarmed; it is simply its natural hue and not ruined.
Following the steps, you can separate the foremilk from the hindmilk. You can now freely decide which to give your infant first. While both offer essential vitamins and nutrients for your child’s healthy physical and mental growth, we still advise combining the two.
Final Words
It’s not always simple to figure out how to increase the breast milk fat composition. Sometimes, variables outside our mothers’ control have an impact on our milk production. This makes it challenging for us to provide our little kids with the fats their bodies require for healthy growth.
The best thing we can do to ensure that breast milk production doesn’t decrease because of outside influences and that it stays high in healthy fats is to keep a good diet ourselves.
If an issue arises, I recommend contacting your lactation consultant, family doctor, or pediatrician as soon as possible to fix it.
Faqs:
Is Your Baby Frequently Eating?
It’s not unusual for people who eat frequently to have a higher percentage of body fat than those who don’t eat often.
Breastfeeding your baby for longer periods of time means that your breast milk has less fat. If you’re breastfeeding your baby for shorter periods of time, your baby is more prone to getting hindmilks.
If you’re planning to breastfeed, consider feeding on demand or increasing the number of times you feed your child throughout the days.
Is fatty breast milk good or bad?
Breast milk has fat in it which makes it good for babies because it gives them energy from breast milk.
Does breast milk composition change as the baby gets older?
Yes. As the child gets older, breast milk composition changes so that it meets the child’s nutritional needs for proper growth.
Does breast milk change for baby boys or baby girls?
Researchers have discovered that the milk produced by mothers differs according to their baby’s gender and whether they’re experiencing good or bad health.
Does breast milk get fattier as the baby grows?
Yes, breastfeeding mothers’ breasts get fatter after their babies reach one year old. A study published in Pediatrics Digest found that breastfeeding mothers’ breasts get bigger after their babies turn one year old.
Do baby boys drink more breastmilk than baby girls?
For baby boys, breastmilk contains 2.8 percent fat; for baby girls, they contain 1.74 percent fat. Baby boys usually take in more breastmilk and nurse longer than baby girl during breastfeeding sessions.