# Milk much thicker on one side?



## becoming (Apr 11, 2003)

I usually hand-express just a drop or two to get my wee one to open up, and I've noticed that the milk from my right breast seems much thicker/whiter than on my left side. On the left, my milk is thinner and more watery. When I was pumping a few days ago at our pediatrician's request, I noticed I could get a lot more milk from the left side (the watery milk) in a shorter period of time. DS seems to swallow/gulp more on the left side while nursing, too. Is this stuff normal?


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## MamaBear1976 (Jul 19, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *becoming* 
I usually hand-express just a drop or two to get my wee one to open up, and I've noticed that the milk from my right breast seems much thicker/whiter than on my left side. On the left, my milk is thinner and more watery. When I was pumping a few days ago at our pediatrician's request, I noticed I could get a lot more milk from the left side (the watery milk) in a shorter period of time. DS seems to swallow/gulp more on the left side while nursing, too. Is this stuff normal?

It sounds normal, and it also sounds like the milk on your right side might need to be emptied more often. My theory for this is that your right breast is about to form clogs, so in order to prevent them, you either need to nurse more often on the right side or pump. If the baby doesn't want to nurse on the right, don't wait to pump. Nurse the baby on the left, but get that thicker milk out somehow. There's nothing wrong with it; you can store it like normal. But it's important to get it out before bigger problems form.


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## AlmostAPpropriate (Oct 23, 2004)

Yep, sounds like clogs in the works to me too. Is your right breast firmer than your left? Feel warm or any pains once in a while. I had good luck rubbing really firmly under the hot shower. PP gave good advice.


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## RootSnort (Nov 22, 2006)

I'm studying to be an IBCLC, and I read about this today!
Yes, even if the difference isn't enough to notice, it is normal for the fat content (and all the other "indgredients") to differ between breasts, and to vary over the course of the day, and from day to day. It cracked me up, I was thinking about one skim breast and one 2% breast.


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## hergrace (Oct 9, 2003)

The thicker milk is the fattier hindmilk and the thinner milk is the foremilk. Think of the foremilk as thirst quenching and the hindmilk as hunger satiating. If you pumped for longer from the left breast, you would notice that over time the milk you were producing got thicker and thicker. The fact that you are getting the thicker milk from the right breast when you express means that the right breast is being more fully emptied than the left when your DS feeds - there is no need to worry about clogs on that side.

What is almost certainly going on with the left breast is that you have a more powerful let down or your DS has created a slight oversupply problem by repeatedly nursing without emptying that side. To reduce the spluttering, you need to make sure that DS is really emptying that breast - which means making him nurse there more often. This is the side on which you need to worry more about the possibility of plugged ducts, because the ducts plug when the hindmilk isn't removed.


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## AlmostAPpropriate (Oct 23, 2004)

That sounds good too. But if the left side is ALWAYS thicker, even before the baby has nursed, I would still suspect clogs in the works. If its thicker after the baby has drained it some then, yes, hindmilk definitely.

How much thicker and how does that breast feel overall are good ways to determine what you are experiencing.


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## becoming (Apr 11, 2003)

Hmm, now I'm confused.









My left breast (with the more watery milk) is probably almost a cup size larger than my right -- could this have anything to do with it? Maybe the babe is having a harder time emptying the left because it's larger and therefore has more milk?

Can you tell I'm new to this?







:


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## hergrace (Oct 9, 2003)

Breast size shouldn't have anything to do with milk volume. Nursing patterns can change how much milk is made. Basically, the body learns what is expected of it. For example, some twins are nursed one on each side exclusively and each breast produces what THAT twin needs and they can be very different amounts.

Change in milk production can be quite quick. For instance, if you are less comfortable nursing on your left side, your baby might latch on and off several times in a feeding. This triggers the body to make more milk and in a matter of a few days, that breast is making much more milk than your baby needs or can handle - most of it the thinner foremilk. If, after baby has struggled with the volume at the left breast, you switch the baby to finish the feed at the other breast and it is vaguely more comfortable, he will more fully empty that breast. Also, if he isn't ever getting to the hindmilk at the left breast, he will want the hindmilk from the right breast to feel his hunger satisfied.

If you are worried, one technique that might help even the breasts out is to feed exclusively from one breast for 6 hours and then from the other for 6 hours and switch back and forth. This is standard for dealing with oversupply (what is likely happening with the sputtering on the left). It would also encourage any clogs that might be forming on the right to be released.


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