Just thought I'd share a funny story. When my daughter was born in May via traditional surrogacy, she was a healthy 6lbs 14 oz, at one week she was 6lbs 13ozs, and the pediatrician insisted on seeing her weekly for weight checks because I was inducing lactation. At 2 weeks she was 7 lbs 4 ozs, and my mother in law was convinced and told everybody that I was starving the baby and my milk couldn't be as healthy as a woman giving birth. At 4 weeks our angel was a full 8 pounds and we were told we didn't have to bring her back until until she was 2 months, at which time she was 11.8 pounds and in the 75% for height and weight. Okay, the skeptics were looking with one eyebrow raised. Now she is 4 months old, and gigantic, I expect her to be in atleast the 90th percentile for height and weight when we take her back on Thursday, she's taller than her 9 month old male cousin and every other baby up to that age she has been around, now here's the kicker.............. I found out tonight that my mother in law told my husband there must be something wrong with my milk because she's growing too fast, that there must be something in those "drugs" I'm taking and it can't be healthy. I just can't wait to hear what the Ped has to say on Thursday. Well, that's life in my little world. Glad you all are here to listen.

Barbara
Mom to Lynsey via TS 5/20/02
AMom to Thomas, Jeffrey, Cory & Josh

Hi Barbara,

What a wonderful story!! You are doing a great job with your baby and you know what...you are the expert on your baby. I'm sure if you had given birth to your baby, your mother in law would still have something to say. The poor woman...never satisfied LOL.

Please be assured that breastfed babies tend to gain faster in the first 6 months but in the long run are leaner per height than formula fed babies, and smarter, and healthier, and well bonded, and so on and so forth. In fact, the typical breastfed baby *loses* weight in the first week and doesn't regain birth weight for 2 weeks. You must have "Devenshire cream" in those breasts of yours (as Lenore would say).

There is nothing in those meds that increases the fat content of your milk. All the domperidone does is increase prolactin which is a hormone, which is a protein, not a fat.

Your pediatricain is going to be pleasantly surprised. As for your Mother in Law...she should only open up her mouth to change her feet.... <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

Esther

Esther,
I'm not aware that there has been any research done on this but I know that when I relactated to breastfeed my adopted daughter that the milk was much creamier than when I pumped after my bio son was born. I was talking about my experiences of having relactated with some breastfeeding volunteers just this week and they all commented on the photos I had of my milk in bottles at how creamy it was.
Of course your daughter regulates how much milk she needs so she can't be overfed but I just thought you might be interested in this.
Dawn

I read somewhere that fat content in the milk is one of the few things that can be affected by diet which might be what happens when ladies eat Alfalfa and then say the milk is creamier. I also know that Peter Hartmann in Australia did a study about emptying the breasts and how the more you do it the more fat you have in your milk. So maybe it was something you ate or more frequent breastfeeding that caused your milk to be creamier. It could also be that you were more efficient at breastfeeding the second time around.

I just thought of the most obvious thing...adoptive breastfeeding moms don't make colostrum...we go right from premilk to milk pretty quickly. Maybe when you were pumping in the beginning for your bio baby, your milk had a longer premilk stage making it seem thinner?

I know Lenore had her milk analyzed at a lab and they found her milk to be consistent with mature breastmilk. And Dr. Riodan and the lady from Lact-aid, Jimmy Avery, did a study a few years ago that found induced breastmilk to be just fine except for the no colostrum thing. But that it was still loaded with antibodies and other goodies and way better than yucky formula.

Esther

Yes, I think that having very empty breasts was perhaps the reason- haven't heard that diet does anything with fat. The milk I was comparing to was when my son was 9-12 months old so it would have been mature milk. It's interesting though.