Breastmilk changes on Paleo diet

[Robin D]

Recently I've been paleo-fying my diet in the hopes of regulating my sleep (see my post in Lack of Sleep Postpartum). Since then I've noticed that the milk I pump for my daughter is MUCH fattier (I can tell by very thick layer of "cream" that settles on top of the thinner, skim milk like stuff)--as in what I pump is well over 50% fat. I'm wondering if that's due to an increase in fat in my diet (and a decrease in carbs) or if it's just a a natural progression in the milk as I continue to breastfeed as my daughter gets older (she's 7 months)?

[jrustdc]

I would attribute it to your diet - but there's nothing wrong with it! Breastmilk generally tends to become less fatty with time but older babies and toddlers can drink the higher fat milk with no problems at all. When a woman tandem nurses, the older child gets to start all over again with newborn milk when the sibling arrives.

[spughy]

It may be a combination of both - if your daughter is taking well to solids and eating more and nursing less, then it's probably due to that, though - milk composition DOES change a great deal. If you ever have occasion to pump for a toddler, you'll notice it's more like half-and-half!

[vtmama]

I was wondering about this myself, as my 5 month old son has started nursing way less than he had been. O'm eating a ton of fat, and he seems happy. Could it be that he's satisfied of less now that i'm eating differently?

[Laura Francis]

There has been a considerable amount of research into how a mothers diet affects the quality and quantity of her breastmilk. Some research which is referenced in Gabrielle Palmer's "The Politics of Breastfeeding" states that the nutritional quality of a well fed (does not state what diet) western woman's breastmilk is not significantly different from that of a malnourished African woman. The only difference was in micronutrient values. Micronutrients are of course very important (particularly Vitamin D) however, the mothers diet should not affect how fatty milk is.

Milk should become fattier and higher in calories the older the baby is, as unlike with milk substitutes, the volume does not significantly change over the course of nursing (as the baby gets older the volume is reasonably consistent per feed provided a baby is fed on demand) because for one the milk storage capacity of a woman's breasts is consistent, but the caloric value of the milk does increase in order to provide more calories for the child.

Most children still get a significant amount of calories from milk (human or otherwise) until at least 2 years of age, which is one of the reasons the WHO recommend breastfeeding for at least this long and more. Solid foods are significant lower in caloric value than milk and so even just from that perspective milk remains a very important part of the child's diet during this period of significant growth and development.

I'm nursing a 16 month old and he seems unbothered by my change of diet. His diet is also significantly lower in carbohydrates and he is fine with that too. I've never pumped so I have no idea what consistency my milk is or how it might have changed by I've certainly not noticed any significant change in nursing patterns.