21/09/2024
🌈Breast milk comes in several colours
Breast milk can indeed exhibit a range of colours, and each colour variation can have different explanations, most of which are normal. Here’s the colourful truth and what they may indicate:
💛 Yellow milk:
• Typically bright yellow in the first few days postpartum due to colostrum, which is high in antibodies and nutrients.
• Hindmilk (the milk that comes later in a feeding) can also appear yellow due to higher fat content.
• Freezing and thawing can make breast milk appear more yellow.
🧡 Orange milk:
• Consuming foods rich in beta-carotene (like carrots, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin) can give breast milk an orange hue.
💙 Blue milk:
• Foremilk (the milk that comes at the beginning in a feeding) is thinner and may have a bluish tint due to containing casein, a digestible protein.
💚 Green milk:
• Consuming large amounts of green foods (like spinach or other leafy greens) or green dyes can result in green-hued milk.
• Certain iron or green algae vitamin supplements or taking a medication, such as Nifedipine (Procardia) can also affect the colour.
🤎 Brown milk:
• Known as "Rusty Pipe Syndrome," this can occur from extra blood flow to your breasts and sometimes leaks into your ducts during pregnancy and in the early days of breastfeeding, making the milk appear brown or rusty, but it usually resolves on its own.
🌸 Pink milk:
• Can occur from cracked ni***es, mixing a small amount of blood into the milk.
• Bacteria Serratia marcescens have also been reported to give a pink hue to the milk.
❤️ Red milk:
• Blood-tinged milk can be caused by broken capillaries or infections in breast tissue, like mastitis or abscess.
🖤 Black milk:
• The antibiotic Solodyn (minocycline) may cause breast milk to turn black and is not recommended during breastfeeding.
If any colour changes persist for a long time or are accompanied by other concerning symptoms (like pain or changes in the baby's behaviour), it is advisable to consult a healthcare provider.
