Does My Milk Have Sufficient Nutrients For My Baby?

Human milk does not look like the homogenized, pasteurized, artificially treated/stored/cooled/warmed/vitamined fluid sold in stores.

It is natural, untreated, live, full of healthy cells that are living things which nurture and protect our babies from infections as well as provide the perfect nourishment for the brain, neural cells, eyes, and all the other essential parts of our babies, at the perfect temperature with the perfect combination of vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and sugars.

Even the moms suffering from malnutrition make excellent milk - much better for their babies than the treated milk sold in stores as a "perfect infant food".

Please do not let the advertisements lead you astray. Do not mix your milk with anything. The first milk you see is colostrum, the perfect BEGINNING food for a baby's digestive system that has not eaten anything ever. It contained antibodies against all the infections a mother has been exposed to and has a laxative effect to clear out the meconium and prepare the digestive system for the coming foods.

Then your milk slowly is transitioned, little by little becoming more like mature mother's milk and less like colostrum. Your baby now needs more fluid, and the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates change too.

What is even more amazing, your milk changes from beginning to the end of feedings to meet the fluid then the caloric needs of your baby. This is why we recommend keeping the baby on the first breast until he lets go - then change and burp, and offer (but don't insist) the second breast.

As your baby gets older, the milk changes and when you start solids at the age of 6 months or later, the milk changes and continues to meet the needs of the baby. Even a child who is over a year and still breastfeeding - but eating lots of other foods - benefits from the breastmilk "snacks" he gets full of antibodies. The later "weaning " milk is more like colostrum again.

So congratulations on serving the best meal a baby can ever have. And ENJOY!!!

By Jeanette Panchula, BA, RN, IBCLC
Vacaville, CA