I just saw a mother and her 12 day old infant yesterday for what was
perceived insufficient milk production. Her first baby was breastfed
exclusively for a year after a few bottles in the hospital due to "fussy
infant syndrome." With this baby, her breasts did not grow [as much], and
when her baby wanted to feed all the time in the hospital, she lost
confidence and asked for the nursery staff to give the bottle. (Nope-- no
one spent time with her to find out WHY or explain what was normal) At first
I thought maybe her breasts had not developed properly this pregnancy, but
she had zero risk factors.  She also reported her milk coming in after the
second day, and full, hard breasts that softened with feeding. Her further
negative proof to herself was that her breasts were now much softer than
with her first baby at this point, surely due to not enough milk.

So we put the baby to the breast. Gulp, gulp, gulp, Rapid succession. Baby
took almost 3oz! And mom had been giving 2oz of formula after every feed!
This 38.5 gestation wt baby was 5#3 at birth, and now 6#9 at 12 days. You
can all do the math-- this little one did not need the 2oz of formula even
though she apparently took it down (and did spit up some). I had to kindly
hammer all the evidence to the mom to convince her that she did indeed have
enough milk, and only slowly did she believe me.

Overfeeding with bottles is so easy, and the signs not always obvious to
parents who believe that when a baby takes the bottle, he needs it.

Lisa Marasco MA IBCLC

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