Again, this comes from personal experience.  In my last post to Lactnet, I
mentioned how I did not follow doctor's orders and discontinue breastfeeding
due to the fact that I was pregnant and had suffered 3 prior miscarriages, all
while in the first trimester.  Again, let me say, I am *NOT* advising anyone
to go against dr's orders, just sharing my personal choices.

When my 4th child was born, my 3rd son was 18 months old and still
breastfeeding happily. Well, the pediatrition decided that I needed to wean my
3rd son.  His reason, since my 3rd son was "no longer nursing for nutritional
value", if I continued, it would cause me to have less milk for my newborn who
needed the milk for nutritional needs.  I mentioned about supply and demand...
he was very convinced that I needed to wean.  Well for 2 weeks (although I did
"sneak" him on the breast a few times), I kept my 3rd child off the breast.
Finally I gave up and gave in.  I hated the idea of taking from one child and
giving only to the other....so what I did was...breastfeed my newborn first...
and let my older son breastfeed from what was left.  My newborn did
wonderfully in the weight-gain dept, and my older son did well emotionally,
and was very close to his new baby brother right up until I began weaning him
(and not his little brother) at the age of 4 1/2 to 5 years old.  Now at the
age of 5 1/2 he is finally showing a decrease in his interest in the breast!!
LOL

As I mentioned in my last post, I did notice a decrease in supply while I was
pregnant, and I too was concerned that my 4th son would lose out on the
benefit of colostrum... and be getting mature milk right from the beginning.
Well, right after my son was born, he had fluid in his lungs, so he was taken
away from me after about 12 hours and put on a warming bed, and given oxygen.
I was not allowed to breastfeed him, as they felt this diminished his ablity
to utilize his oxygen most efficiently.  They gave him formula *YUK* for about
3 days and had me pumping my breast to bring in my supply.  Interestingly
enough, even though I was offering the breast to my 3rd son, right up till the
day before I gave birth to my 4th, I couldn't pump out a drop.  When they
finally did give my son back to me on the 4th day of his life, and allowed me
to breastfeed him,  within 24 hours my milk came in.  Could be, my 3rd son was
not getting anything or perhaps he was getting colostrum... either way, he was
getting love and security... that was all that mattered to me.

Again, not advocating going against dr's orders, but sometimes I wonder if
mom's *heart* doesn't really know what's best.

Veronica Scott
Breastfeeding Peer Coordinator
(typing while breastfeeding my 4th son who's sick.. poor guy, and mom has pink
eye!! gotta love it :)   Why do the kids always get sick around the holidays
anyway????  LOL