my pumped milk is.... green

[mamakaya]

I was recently separated from my 8 month old baby for a couple of days. Everything went super well while we were apart and he picked up on nursing again like we never stopped. While I was away I was pumping several times a day and each.. and.. every.. time it was GREEN! My pumped milk was green. Not dark green, or olive green, but like a light and fresh colour. Like milky kiwis or something.

What the heck is that all about!

I eat a lot of greens and veggies in my day. I try to make at least 50% of each meal be veggies (except breakfast which is fruit). We eat only clean unprocessed foods. I am super healthy but would that turn my mlik green?? It is kind of hilarious!

If you need to see a post of this green milk let me know. I'm weird enough to have taken a picture for my records.

[StoriesInTheSoil]

Do you take vitamins? Is your urine greenish yellow ever?

[Momalea]

Mine was too! I remember the first time I pumped when my dd was a couple of weeks old and it was light green. I was baffled. I occasionally pumped during the 4 years of nursing my dd, and it was never quite that shade again. I never noticed it being green with my 2nd baby, but I so rarely pumped I might have just missed that phase. I know your child is older, but it makes me think that it's not that unusual.

[Blessed_Mom]

I have heard BM can take on different colors based on the foods we eat (like green if we eat a lot of spinach).

Also some moms had reported on this other site that their BM (and their LOs poop) was blue after they drank some blue gatorade I read that it was just fine.

[Llyra]

I've seen a few different shades of milk over the years. I know I've pumped blue milk before, and yellow plenty of times, and once something that looked almost orange. I don't recall mine ever being green, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you're in good health, so is your milk.

[Fly Girl]

Mine is sometimes green too

[pumpkinhead]

It sounds like you're just making/pumping a lot of foremilk right now. Foremilk is mostly water and protein and can appear to have a bluish or greenish tint. How long were you pumping? I'm also guessing you probably weren't pumping as often as your baby would normally nurse (I'd have been pumping every freaking 3 seconds if I tried to pump as often as my kids nursed, so that's not a slam ). When that happens, the fat in the milk clings to the ducts and doesn't "let down" until you've pumped off lots of foremilk. Milk without fat looks blue/greenish .

[Momalea]

pumpkinhead-
Thanks for that explanation!

[terrabella]

I always make a lot of hindmilk. ( for making yogurt, butter, and kefir, but sadly breastmilk seems to fail becoming cheese...) My husband loves to tease me about how it's butter when it comes out. Yellow an thick. It separates into about two inches of "cream" per 4oz. bottle.

I remember reading about how pumped milk is usually bluish in tint, and calling my midwife all freaked out. Ah, new motherhood. Good times.

I can totally see eating a lot of greens making your milk green though, because it certainly effects your waste excretions, so we *know* that it has a staining affect on our fluids. Your baby is lucky, have you seen how much those super green drinks cost?

[mamakaya]

Originally Posted by pumpkinhead

It sounds like you're just making/pumping a lot of foremilk right now. Foremilk is mostly water and protein and can appear to have a bluish or greenish tint. How long were you pumping? I'm also guessing you probably weren't pumping as often as your baby would normally nurse (I'd have been pumping every freaking 3 seconds if I tried to pump as often as my kids nursed, so that's not a slam ). When that happens, the fat in the milk clings to the ducts and doesn't "let down" until you've pumped off lots of foremilk. Milk without fat looks blue/greenish .

See, when I was away I was pumping for 45 minutes to an hour. That is a really long time! I know it takes longer with pumps and my babe is much more efficient, but there was thick creamy milk at the top of the pumped milk and strands of the thicker milk throughout the green milk. Even the thicker stuff was like.... creme de menthe? Maybe that was the foremilk wearing off?

My babe usually eats in the morning, near lunch, near 3 or 4, about 8ish and then he's down until the middle of the night when he wakes up to eat. This is breastfeeding on demand too, btw, he knows what he wants and if I offer more he bites (which is mega ouch with his teeth) so I don't. When I was away from him I missed the 3-4 pumping but made up for it at 5 and then pumped at least two times in the evening.

Strange. But it makes me smile to know I'm not the only one. Our milk is so cool

[mamakaya]

Originally Posted by terrabella

Your baby is lucky, have you seen how much those super green drinks cost?

My husband, who was with me on the trip, always buys those types of drinks. I totally teased him about the wonders of my perfectly prepared intensely immuno supported full of vitamins and heavy doses of love milk. In the end, his curiosity agreed with all of my encouragement! His comment?: "wow, babe is lucky to drink this all day. wow. yum!" hahahaah.

[terrabella]

Originally Posted by mamakaya

My husband, who was with me on the trip, always buys those types of drinks. I totally teased him about the wonders of my perfectly prepared intensely immuno supported full of vitamins and heavy doses of love milk. In the end, his curiosity agreed with all of my encouragement! His comment?: "wow, babe is lucky to drink this all day. wow. yum!" hahahaah.

I'm the only one in my house who hasn't tasted anything to do with my milk. It's so weird to me. Isn't that sad?

[sunshynbaby]

Milk can come in different colors depending on your diet. My morning pumped milk is always yellow because of the vitamins I take, but my afternoon milk is bluish white.

[terrabella]

♥

[writteninkursive]

Can you post a picture of the green milk anyway to sate my curiosity? Please?

[terrabella]

♥