>Hi All
>
>I have been following the threads about babies whose weight gains (or lack
>thereof) are causing concern.  I am wondering when the risks associated with
>slow growth begin to outweigh the risks associated with supplementation.
>Has anyone done or seen any research on this? I have read a few times that
>formula feeding is preferable to a hungry baby.  At the risk of sounding
>like a raving lunatic, I wonder if this is always true.


<snip>



Nina, I share your questions. I know there are long-term risks with 
failure to thrive (which we now call 'faltering growth' in the UK, a 
much better term, IMO, as it merely describes,  without frightening 
the bejabers out of the mother and her carers). I know the majority 
of healthy, happy breastfeeding babies gain weight within the 
accepted norms. But the risks of formula supplementation are 
documented as well, as we know, and one of the major risks is *the 
mother stops giving any breastmilk at all* and this is documented as 
well (at least it is in the UK Infant Feeding Survey ).

Do we actually know how to balance these risks against each other? 'A 
little hungry' but otherwise well may well be preferable to 'not 
getting any breastmilk at all after x weeks'.

There  is a great study waiting to be done that looks at supplemented 
babies long term, and another one which puts all the figures into a 
mathematical pot and compares risks.

I accept that in the UK, we are lucky in that the health service 
provides all mothers with easily-accessed community based primary 
care for free, from birth, and baby clinics and health visitors can 
monitor a baby's progress, so a baby's whose growth is faltering and 
whose health is causing concern  (or not) can easily be seen several 
times a week (the other side of this good furtune is the 
breastfeeding knowledge of health visitors and baby clinics can be 
desperately poor).

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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