The fat content of suckled breast milk: A new approach to its assessment

Using a modification of the “interrupted feed” technique (Woolridge et al., 1982, Early Hum. Dev., 6, 265–272), the authors devised an equation relating milk fat content at any point during a feed from a breast to the volume consumed since the start of the feed. Hence, an equation was obtained to estimate the mean fat content (MF) of milk consumed during a feed from the fat content of small samples of fore-milk ( F b ) and hind-milk ( F e ): MF = 0.57 F b + 0.43 F e The authors argue that their approach yields a closer approximation to the true value of MF than previously described estimators of MF.