10 Commonly Used Breastfeeding Words

We all know that breastfeeding is the best way to provide nutrition to an infant. Unfortunately, many people know nothing about breastfeeding, either by choice or just because they weren't raised to know anything about breastfeeding. The breastfeeding world is full of terms, words and phrase that the common non-breastfeeder wouldn't know about or understand. Sometimes just the language of breastfeeding can be enough to scare someone off, but I'm here to help with that. In this article you will find 10 of the most commonly used breastfeeding terms, words and phrases. I hope it helps some of you to understand just a little bit more about the mechanics of breastfeeding.

Latch- Latch is a term that refers to the way that your infant attaches to your breast. To ensure a proper latch your baby should open their mouth as wide as possible and then you pull your baby onto your nipple quickly. Doing this makes sure that the right amount of nipple is in your baby's mouth. If there isn't enough nipple in the baby's mouth you will have pain and possibly cause problems, like cracked nipples.

Colostrum- Colostrum is the very first "milk" that a breast makes when a baby is born. It is a thick, sticky, yellowish fluid. Colostrum can leak from the breasts weeks before the baby is even born. Colostrum lasts until the mature milk comes in, around 3-7 days. Colostrum is perfectly formulated for your newborn baby. It acts as a laxative to help your newborn pass it's first stool and clean out it's system.

Mature Milk- Mature milk is the milk that comes in after the colostrum. Mature milk is thinner than colostrum and is white in color. This is the milk that your child will drink until they are weaned.

Fore/Hindmilk- Foremilk is the milk that your nursing infant receives when you put them to the breast. The hindmilk is the milk that your baby will receive after a few minutes of nursing. The foremilk is the milk that is leftover in the breast from the previous nursing session. The foremilk is considered less fattening while the hindmilk is considered a richer, more fattening milk. Your baby will need both of thee milks in order to have a well-balanced breastmilk diet.

Letdown- Letdown refers to the moment that the hindmilk becomes available to your nursing baby. Some women, myself included, will have a tingling sensation when letdown occurs. This is perfectly normal. The tingling sensation only lasts a matter of minutes before it passes. Some women, on the other hand, will never feel their letdown. Another term to consider is "forceful letdown". This refers to a gush of milk when letdown occurs. Letdown could be so forceful that the nursing infant will become overwhelmed and get choked or they baby will simply let go of the breast and milk will spray them in the face. This is common with a forceful letdown and nothing to be worried about. Just be prepared by having a dry towel ready to catch any overflow of milk.

Milk Blister- A milk blister is simply a spot on the nipple that has milk under the skin. It is a blocked milk duct opening that skin has grown over, therefore milk pools up behind the skin causing the milk blister. It can be painful and looks like a pimple. Treatment for a milk blister is warm compresses and a lot of breastfeeding. With this combination the milk blister should correct itself quickly.

Engorgement- Engorgement is where the breasts are overfull of milk. This can happen for numerous reasons, including when the mature milk comes in for the first time, if you skip a feeding or two and when your baby starts sleeping through the night. For relief you can express some milk, take a hot shower and even use hot compresses. Some wome find comfort in taking an over-the-counter medication like Motrin to relieve the soreness associated with engorgment. I preferred to use a breastpump and used the milk to stock my freezer, just in case it was ever needed.

Cracked Nipples- Cracked nipples can be very painful. A cracked nipple can be caused by anything like an improper latch from the baby, a milk blister, thrush and even from your baby taking a bite out of your poor nipples while nursing. When trying to heal a cracked nipple you should continue to nurse your infant on that side, but it's better to nurse from the good side first. You should invest in a good tube of lanolin cream to smear all over the cracked nipple. My favorite was the Lansinoh brand of lanolin. You don't even have to clean it off of the nipple before you baby nurses. Make sure that you keep the lanolin on your nipple as much as possible so that it will protect the cracked nipple. If the cracked nipple was caused by an improper latch it is extremely important that you do everything possible to correct that latch. Try out different positions and make sure the baby is opening their mouth wide enough. Make sure that you keep the nipples as dry as possible. Air drying is best. Some people even suggest using a saltwater mixture to help in the healing process.

Gentian Violet- Gentian violet is a product that many women use to treat thrush, a yeast-like breast infection. You can usually find gentian violet at yoru local pharmacy and/or natural food stores. Gentian violet is a bright purple color and stains anything and everything that it touches, so be careful using it. When you are dealing with thrush you simply paint the nipples with the gentian violet, as well as the inside of your infants mouth. Be careful not to drip it because you will stain something. My bathroom still has a few purple streaks from my second daughter "painting" my bathroom with it when she was four years old. That was three years ago and those spots are still purple.

Expressing Milk- When you express milk you are simply removing milk from the breast by any means other than a nursing baby. You can express milk with a breast pump and even by hand.

These are just a small sampling of the many terms, words and phrases used in the breastfeeding world. If you are interested in knowing more about breastfeeding, please check out my articles titled Relief for Common Breast Pains While Breastfeeding, The Best Supplies for Breastfeeding Mothers and The Best Websites for Breastfeeding Information. Hopefully we can change this countries backwards views on breastfeeding one person at a time.