# How do you know when your breast is "empty"?



## jgdy (Jun 15, 2006)

I'm wrestling with (what I think are) foremilk/hindmilk issues and I'm curious about this. How do you know when your baby has emptied a breast? Is it when you can no longer manually express milk? Is it when your baby pops off? Is it when the breast feels "soft"?

We've been block feeding as per the very helpful suggestions I received to my earlier question about a possible foremilk/hindmilk imbalance but I still don't know when to switch sides. Sometimes my breast just feels empty (soft, and milk is hard or impossible to manually express) when the baby pops off, and sometimes I'm not sure.

Tips appreciated!

Thanks.


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## Mommy2Teagan (Nov 2, 2008)

I honestly don't know myself. It seems like everytime I think I'm "empty", my letdown starts up again. As far as foremilk and hindmilk goes, I only nurse on one side at each feeding for as long as she wants. I feel like she gets plenty of hindmilk that way.


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## jecombs (Mar 6, 2008)

Your breasts are never really "empty" because they are always making milk. So, even when the breast is soft, LO will still be able to get a trickle of milk out. The trickle is the high-fat hindmilk, so they don't need as much of it to get full.

When your baby stops showing interest in the breast is a good time to switch sides. If baby shows re-newed interest at the 2nd breast, keep feeding him/her. If baby is not interested, then he/she is probably full.


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