Different suckling sounds

[AK89]

Can you tell if your baby's reached the good stuff by the way she suckles..? I've been thinking you can but now I'm starting to doubt myself! What do you guys think?

I was thinking when she got to the stage where she was taking big long slow gulps that was the hindmilk.. she's been having green poos lately which im gonna take her to the doctor about on Monday but in the meantime I'm gonna see if I can suss it out with the way I feed her. I didn't wanna just start block feeding straight away in case it wasn't the hindmilk/foremilk thing that was the issue and I affected my supply for no reason. But I obviously wanted to make sure each boob was drained before I moved onto the next, which I always thought was quite tricky 'cause I never can really tell if they're "empty" or not.. also my LO sometimes seems to come off the boob by accident (pops right off then starts rooting uncontrollably til I put her back on!) so that wasn't really a plausible way of telling she'd finished with one boob So then I started to realise she makes a different sound at a certain point after she's been feeding a while, like long, slow gulps that sound really satisfying! And I wondered if that meant she'd got to the good stuff!? I don't know how else I'm gonna tell to be honest.. I'm just hoping either that's the case or that it's not a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance at all and it's something else that's easily solved!!

While we're on the subject, does anyone else's LO do that? Where they thrust themselves backwards off the boob and then start rooting again instantly until you latch them back on? Not sure if she's just knocking herself off with her flailing arms by accident (she sometimes prevents herself from latching on this way too) or is this is just as clear a sign as any that she's onto the next!

 

[Kitters]

DS does the long gulps as well but I always assumed it was the fore milk. He suckles frantically at first, then a few seconds in will start the long gulps with a swallow after each one. That implies to me that he's getting a lot of fluid very quickly so thought it was the fore milk as it's more free flowing and watery. After a bit of that he will do maybe 4/5 sucks between each swallow, so thought this was the hind milk as that is thicker and a bit slower, so he has to suck a few more times before he's drawn enough to need to swallow.

He quite often comes off the boob by himself and does the wild rooting thing, too. It's normally when he's worked himself up so he's still thrashing about after he's latched and rips off then gets angry and roots like crazy. So frustrating! I go by a number of things to judge when to move to the next boob. If I feel my boob is emptier when it was really full and tender before, if he's been on for a long time and has been properly feeding the whole time, or when he keeps falling asleep. I also hand express a drop to see what the milk is like, so if he falls asleep or comes off himself, I express a drop and if it's still really watery I put him back on. If it's the thicker/creamier milk, I'll maybe put him back on once to make sure he gets some of the hind milk then move him over to the other side next time he comes off.

 

[AK89]

Ok thanks! Yeah I usually go by those things too.. except the hand expressing thing, that's a good idea. So when you express it, is it like the foremilk is the stuff that's more clear / see through and the hindmilk is the white stuff?

 

[Kitters]

I think so, just a guess though! I just squeeze out a teeny tiny drop to check the colour

 

[AK89]

Well we just woke up for a night feed and she's fed off my left hand side and that feels nice and soft now so I squeezed some out and it's the more see through stuff as opposed to the super white stuff, so I squeezed some out of right to compare and it's the same stuff... confused!

 

[Literati_Love]

Yeah I think the sound you are describing is them triggering a let down (they can trigger a second later in the feed too which may explain hearing it later on) so wouldn't mean your baby is getting hind milk at that point. What the pp said makes sense to me but not sure!

 

[luz]

When your baby starts gulping it just means your milk is letting down and coming out quicker. If your LO is having lots of green poos, perhaps try offering one side per feeding. I always have a huge over supply of milk and that's what i've done to reduce the green poo problem. You should also look into block feeding, it is great to use when babies are cluster feeding or if you have a baby who is more of a snacker.