Green poops

Green poops that are frothy and liquidy are supposed to signify that your baby receives an unbalanced amount of foremilk and hindmilk during feeds.

Foremilk is the thin, light, sugary milk that quickly hydrates the baby and entices him to eat further. Hindmilk is the rich fatty stuff towards the end that looks whiter and heavier. Really, with each suck, baby is getting both foremilk and hindmilk, but the problem happens when the baby doesn't get enough time to nurse to really reach the hindmilk finale. So he fills up on foremilk. Which is FINE, according to my pediatrician. It has all that baby needs. But the green diapers are ewwy, I must say. And explosive.

I always let Sam stay on each side for as long as he wanted, yet he still had green diapers until 3 months of age. Seriously, they were never yellow, the color of choice. Still, the doctor wasn't concerned so I wasn't either, but I was curious to know why they were happening. I finally figured it out. I was making so much more milk that necessary that Sam got full before he even was halfway through the breast. It's not that I didn't let him stay on that side long enough. He just didn't need any more (though I had plenty of milk to go around).

When my supply regulated at about 3 months, the green diapers disappeared too.