Foremilk vs Hindmilk

Foremilk? Hindmilk?

What’s the deal? It may not be what you were told.

Have you heard these terms before? Foremilk was thought to be the less fatty milk at the beginning of a feed, and hindmilk was considered the more fatty milk at the end of a nursing session.

What we know now is that fat content in human milk depends on the time between feeds and how empty the breasts are. The more frequent your baby nurses and the emptier your breasts are, the fattier your milk is!

Think about your sink for a second, you turn on the water, and it's cold to start, so you turn on the hot water, and slowly heats up. The hot water is the fat content in your milk; it takes time to increase. If you quickly shut the faucet off and then turn it back on, the water will still be warm; your milk will still have a higher fat content. If you shut the faucet off for a few hours and then turn it back on, the water will be cold again.

It's less about where you are in a single feed and more about the timing of feedings overall!