# is it okay to pump and dump a little foremilk?



## tippytoes26 (Mar 19, 2002)

My 3 week old is VERY fussy with her poops. She seems to have a very hard time with them and some of her poops are just watery green stuff. I keep reading that too much foremilk can cause this. She's getting bottles of expressed milk for the most part. When I have them in the fridge, the fat on top is BARELY there. With my first daughter (who I pumped for too), I remember the fat being pretty thick.

So I'm wondering.. is this one just getting too much foremilk? My supply isn't all that abundant.. I pump every 4-6 hours for 25 minutes and get about 3.5-4oz from each breast (so 6-8oz total). The first let down is VERY watery and almost blue. Is it okay to dump this let down so that she's getting more fat and maybe isn't so fussy with every poopy?

When she does latch on and nurse, I'm sure she's getting almost only foremilk because she eats so often .. like once an hour.. so doesn't nurse for long enough to get the hindmilk. Is that bad?

Amber


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## its_me_mona (Feb 2, 2005)

I wouldn't pump and dump. I'd block feed. That means using one breast for a specific block of time for every feeding within that time frame. For example, from 12-4, only nurse from your left breast. From 4-8, only nurse from your right.

I don't understand though -- you said she nurses every hour but gets mainly EBM in a bottle. Why? If you are exclusively pumping for whatever reason, you probably want to be pumping more often than every 4-6 hours. This early in the game you should probably be pumping at least every 2-3 during the day and every 4 through the night.

HTH!


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## thepeach80 (Mar 16, 2004)

If you do pump a little before she eats, save the milk in the freezer for mixing w/ baby food etc.


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## kbridi (Mar 16, 2005)

You could express some and dump it. I actually did this with DS becuase he had colic. It didn't really make a difference, but it's worth a try. As a pp said, I'd save it to mix with food for when she gets older.

Ahd, the more often you nurse, the fattier your milk stays.


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