When to pump?

[Jayray]

I basically EBF and haven't given many bottles of EBM recently. However, I've pumped some to have a relief bottle and some emergency milk in the freezer. We had green poo all last week, though, and so I've been trying to make sure the baby is getting plenty of hindmilk and have seen improvement over the last couple days. When is the best time to pump so as not to mess up the foremilk/hindmilk deal? Or can you really mess it up?

[paulamc]

I try to pump immediately after nursing, once or twice a day to boost supply and to have a little extra in a cup to give him (he's 10 months old) at some meals. If I wait long after he nurses to pump, there might not be much milk for him when he nurses the following time. This is true even after he goes to bed, because he wakes so frequently to nurse at night. Of course I don't pump as much as I would if I waited longer. But I figure that if I waited longer, I'd just be replacing milk he'd otherwise get by nursing with expressed milk, as opposed to pumping "extra" milk.