worried about quality and amount of bm

Im a bit worried about the quality of my breast milk, when I first started expressing it was almost white, when it settled there was a huge thick 'fat' layer like 1-2 cm!
the past 3 days when Ive done it it basically looks like ultra thinned out milk when it settles the bottom bit is basically clear and the 'fat' later is minimal like 3-5mm if Im lucky
is this going to make a difference to her? what can I do to help my milk become 'better'
Ive thought about trying either the tigers milk or the lactation cookies recipes that were posted in the feb dd do you think these will help with the quality or just quantity? ohh and another thing in the morning Im so full as she's been sleeping 10-13 hours at night, Im getting 200-300mls from one breast within 10 minutes, Ill fed her on the other one, but by the end of the day mu boobs are basically empty! Im actually having to give her the ebm where as before I could freeze it no worries
what am I doing wrong?

How old was baby when you first started expressing? Do you always express at the same time of day? IME breastmilk is always a little bit more concentrated earlier on and then will thin out a little.

Regardless, I think your milk is fine - it is not always going to be 100% the same from day to day or even from feed to feed. If you weren't expressing you wouldn't even know what color it was or how much hindmilk vs foremilk that there was in any one feed.

Other signs to look for are whether your girl has been windier or more upset than usual after a feed, harder to burp, and the color of her poos will tell you a lot too - if they are looking a bit on the greeny side then she is getting more of the thinner milk and you can solve that by block feeding at the breast.

A lot of women experience a dip in supply at the end of the day, although technically your breasts are never 'empty' - but if you do want to boost your supply a bit then by all means try some of the remedies like cookies, tigers milk, brewers yeast, almonds etc... also make sure you are drinking HEAPS of water, and getting plenty of protein in your diet.

Lastly, I don't think you are doing anything wrong at all - quite the opposite, and I know it is so hard to keep the worry at bay sometimes.

I'm a bit worried about mine at the moment too. I haven't been eating or drinking well lately and so I plan to boost that and perhaps start drinking complan again. I need to stop being so lazy. I have offer him both sides now at every feed. But he has an almost dry nappy in the late afternoon/early evening, which I'm assuming is because my milk supply has dropped off. He wakes up now at 11pm/11:30pm (I used to have to wake him) and tonight I noticed he drank a lot, so he must've been hungry. I'm intending to boost my milk supply through my diet and also to start Nathan on solids as he's at that age he can and I'd rather do that then top up with formula.

I wouldn't worry about her not having pooey nappies so frequently. Babies change, and fully breastfed babies can go up to 10-14 days without pooing!!! This is because they quickly digest breastmilk. I hadn't heard about babies being more windy because of decreased supply. But I did know about the green poos. Four things you should look at doing: one is, try to boost your supply using your diet - eating and drinking sufficient. Healthy diet. Secondly, is your baby having wet nappies? If you are feeding 3hrly, you should be changing her about 3hrly... A young baby shouldn't go more than 4hrs with a dry nappy. If she's having a wet nappy each time, that is a good sign she's getting enough. Third, is she putting on weight? Fourth, does she seem hungry still after you finish feeding her? Still looking for the breast or grizzling afterwards or even crying soon afterwards.

the way our bodies store milk changes and it becomes more efficient at supplying and storing, and it does it in response to what our baby wants and needs too. It is very clever! have faith that your body can do it! eating healthy and making sure you are drinking enough is certainly helpful though.

newlywed wrote: Tastic, if I were in your shoes, I would offer either EBM or formula after a feed to see if she is still hungry. If she is, then you know that your milk supply is not enough, and then you either have a choice to find ways to boost your milk supply or to offer top-ups of formula.

I'm really sorry but I have to disagree with this - lots of people fall into this trap, and baby takes the bottle, so mum assumes she's not making enough milk, and so more and more formula gets offered and the boobs make less and less and it's a nasty spiral. As I posted earlier today in the "tips for breastfeeding and milk supply" thread, just because baby takes the bottle doesn't mean they're still hungry. (Or if you do offer EBM, keep in mind you'll have to aim to express the same amount to keep your supply up.)

I was just going to say - Trish, Adele is about the right age for your supply to have naturally settled down a bit. As Bizzy pointed out, your milk will be right for her now - boobs are very clever! That means it is likely that there will be a lower proportion of fat in the milk. Also keep in mind that the fatty hindmilk is much harder to express off cos you get the more watery stuff off first, just because of the way milk production works.

The short answer is, don't stress!

Well what you've said makes sense and I am new to being a mum and breastfeeding (my baby's nearly 5mths old), however I still would be concerned about the nappy situation and would suggest watching that and weight gains.