A mother has shared a fascinating photo showing how her breast milk changed colour when she was feeding her daughter who had a fever.
Ashlee Chase, from the US, explained people often question why she still breastfeeds her seven-month-old and they tell her: “she’s too old” or “she’s just using you as a pacifier”.
As a way to silence the comments, the mum posted a photo of her milk three days before her her became ill and compared it to a photo of her milk that day, when her daughter had a fever and “comfort nursed” all night.
Chase told Yahoo she called her daughter’s paediatrician, who told her that the breast milk’s darker yellow colour meant there was “more fat and antibodies in the milk” to help her daughter fight the infection.
Chase’s post has had more than 7,000 shares in three weeks and thousands of comments from parents fascinated by the photo.
“It’s amazing what mums’ bodies do to help our babies,” one person wrote. “That’s your milk producing antibodies to fight the illness.”
Another wrote: “Wow, this is amazing.”
In February 2016, a mum shared a similar photo of her breast milk that changed colour when her daughter was ill. Mallory Smothers said she believed, after reading an article from a medical journal, that her milk had produced antibodies to help her baby fight off the illness.
At the time, Janet Fyle, professional policy advisor at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said it was certainly possible the mother’s belief that the composition of her milk changed is correct.
“The body does a lot of stuff we don’t understand,” she told HuffPost UK. “The mother might be right and breast milk does change sometimes.
“The mother has quoted what a scientist has said - who tend to know a bit more than the rest of of us. I don’t want to dispute what she’s saying.
“The body does wonderful things and so does breast milk. So it is possible - never underestimate the power of the body.”