Pumped Breastmilk Is GREEN?!?!

Well, that sounds a little strange, and I have no idea if it's safe, but if you haven't taken any drugs, you aren't sick or anything else I wouldn't worry too much. I mean, if you weren't pumping you wouldn't even know, right? And I know that when I pumped my milk was sometimes pale blue. Have you been eating a lot of anything green lately? Try calling a lactation counselor if you're worried.

My breast milk often had a green tint to it. I think it's just a reflection of what you've been eating. I continued to give it to my baby and she did just fine!

Mine has always been like that. My son is 8 months old. It is watery & greenish at first. Then it turns white, thicker & milkier. I've read that it is normal so I never worried about it. My son has no problems eating it.

I would think that it is fine, but my first question would be would have you been eating?

First I would call your doctor and make sure everything else is ok. There are also some really great lactaction clinics here in San Diego. I went to one called the "milkmaid" and she was awesome.

There are a variety of reasons, but the most common is an excess of caffine. If not in your coffe, think of other things, even decafinated tea has caffine, sodas etc... try cutting back and see if it helps.

My breast milk got like that when I had clogged mild ducts. I didn't feed it to my kiddo since I wasn't sure if the infection was in the milk or not. I didn't want to risk it. I did just pump double duty and did the heat pacs on the infection site and it cleared up in a couple days.

I remember having orange breastmilk, it all depends on what you eat or drink. It's totally normal.
If you want to talk with someone about breastfeeding or baby issues, I always called Hoag's Baby Line, 949-764-BABY(2229). Hoag is where I delivered, they have a very strong support network. The number will reach either a nurse or a lactation specialist, they were always good about getting back to me in 24 hours or less when they didn't answer right away.

Are you eating a lot of green's like veggi's?? It can usually just be what you are eating. But if you have been sick lately you might want to call your doctor. There are a ton of lactation sites online that you could check out and see what they tell you. Good luck

I think that happened to me once or twice...although it was more a hint than full blown green. I think I heard it was because of my iron...not sure if that was true or not, but my son was fine.

With my first child I actually had a skin infection and it was draining into my breast milk and it had a green tint to it. I was a little concerned but didn't think much of it until I had to be put on antibiotics. I then had to stop breastfeeding my child. After I stopped though her stomach was more calm and she had less gas. I had to put her on formula and she was a changed baby. The doctors later discoverd that my breastmilk was making it hard for my baby to digest. With my second child I never had this problem and my milk was only a yellow color.

Mine was greenish sometimes. I think it's just because of what you ate and shouldn't be harmful to the baby. Did you have spinach or another dark green veggie or even something with a lot of green food dye? It can never hurt to call your doctor (or if your hospital has a help line for mothers) just to put yourself at ease.

Are you taking any herbal supplements to increase your milk supply, such as fenugreek? I did when I first started breastfeeding and that did it.

Hi C.!
From what I've read the color doesn't mean its not good. You must be eating a lot of greens. If its fresh its ok to feed it to your baby.

I don't know how helpful this is, but I remember noticing that my pumped breastmilk was greenish. I only pumped a handful of times, or else I would not have noticed at all. I breastfed mostly from the breast. I noticed lots of inconsistancies when pumping. I think depending on how much fat is in the milk it changes the tint. Have you ever noticed that skim cows milk looks sort of blue, but the milks with fat are more yellow tinted?

yes its normal and ok for your baby. you have probably just ate a lot of green foods. when i was pumping for my daughter my breast milk would be colored a bit orange, yellow, milky, and peachy. it was all do to what i was eating. if are really worried about it just call your dr. they will be able to tell you what you need to know

It is probably something you ate and heck yes, I'd feed it to the baby. If you were nursing directly from the breast, you'd never know it was green. My pumped milk usually has a blue-ish tint to it. I have no idea why but it doesn't effect the quality of the milk.

:-)T.

From what I've heard, your milk is based on your diet. In fact, it tastes like what you eat. Did you eat a lot of spinach or something that would have a lot of green in it?

Here are websites: http://www.fisher-price.com/us/prepare/qanda.asp?c=bg_bre...

http://parenting.ivillage.com/newborn/nbreastfeed/0,,3wvl...

http://www.mother-2-mother.com/motherconcerns.htm

I have pumped every day for a year for my twins and every time I eat salad, my milk turns green. Also, Lucky Charms will turn it blueish green. It is probably just something you ate. Also, I don't drink tea or soda, so my green milk isn't from caffine.

the only time i have ever seen green breastmilk is after the mom had drank alcohol.

Your foremilk is watery and has that greenish tint. Then do you notice if you pump longer, the top milk is whiter? That is your hind milk which is more fatty. Once you refrigerate you can really see when it separates. I don't really think it is green, possibly just how it looks through the plastic?

I had a customer order a pistachio cake but had never heard of it so I made a practice one. The cake itself was green and the frosting had an entire bag of pistachios ground up in it. That night when I pumped, it was all green! LOL. Probably just something you ate:)

That happened to me once and they only thing I could think of is that I had a couple cans of sprite that day. Not sure if that helps or not.