Marsha, Kathy, and Jan and anyone else following this thread :-) It seems perfectly plausible that IV fluids and drugs with an antidiuretic action could lead to bloated babies, but I have noticed that term babies of moms who have natural childbirth are bloated as well...my understanding is that it is normal (in the non-induction situation) for the mom becomes bloated as a protection against low bp in advance of labor and she quickly sheds these fluids after birth, and I think the same thing is happening to the baby...he is shedding these extra fluids in the hours immediately following birth.... My experience with babies leads me to believe that weight loss of 7-10% (may be even more in super bloated babies?) is to be expected especially if the mother is not experiencing early lactogenesis II...but at the other end of that, the expectation that babies should be returning to birth weight by 14 days is way off base in my opinion...with good breastfeeding management ( no other problems beyond the mothers control) l I see babies returning to, and exceeding birth weight between day 5-7, depending on parity and nursing experience during pregnancy... The reason I would like to nail down what is actually normal for each type of birth, primiparas, multiparas, and multiparas who nursed through a pregnancy, is that in my estimation the pediatricians and moms are waiting too long when there are breastfeeding problems to seek help...in my area they typically decide there is a weight gain issue when the baby hasn't regained birth weight at the two week mark... If we could establish a more accurate bench mark for regaining and exceeding birth weight, for each type of mother, perhaps the timing of newborn checks could be altered to optimize the timing of interventions that would salvage the breastfeeding relationship... Another thread is exploring the reasons mothers wean and my experience has been that the primary reason mothers wean is a general feeling of dissatisfaction with breastfeeding...a general dissatisfaction that moms can't usually pin down...my intuition is that in many instances this dissatisfaction arises from a less than copious milk supply, or the perception that frequent nursing means the supply is inadequate...I guess what I'm trying to say is that when the milk supply is copious AND the mother perceives it to be so, she is more inclined to work through other obstacles that may arise to breastfeeding (working, sore nipples etc)... but if the supply isn't great she weans or will wean at the next bump in the road... Jen O'Quinn IBCLC On Jul 16, 2005, at 9:22 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote: > > > Marsha says: > > <<I know it hasn't been proven that babies of moms who have retained > a lot of > water could be overloaded themselves, so let me pose this question. > How do > you explain babies who are feeding ok, though not great, and sometimes > not > even ok, who pee and poop like there's no tomorrow for the first 1-2 > days?>> > > > > ********************************************** > > 1. There actually was a very small study that was reported in the ABM > newsletter awhile back that showed that mothers that had epidurals > (by extension, > more fluids) had babies that weighed more (and lost more) than > mothers that > did not have epidurals. (Merry, ABM News, 2000) > > 2. Pitocin is an antidiuretic (look it up in the PDR). As such, it > holds > fluids in the mother's body (one of the reasons Jean "invented" RPS). > It is > also going to work the same way on the baby if the mother got pit > while the > baby was in utero!! i.e. -- stimulated or induced. > > 3. It would be helpful if every diaper that comes off the baby w/ > something > in it were weighed, and then compared the weights of whatever is > eliminated > in the first 2 days by induced/epidural/high volume fluid mothers to > weights > of the diapers of babies who were born to mothers that didn't have > induction/epidurals/high volume fluid. > > Can't do it at my hospital because we will have all former and no > latter. > Unless we could do a cut off point -- anyone that had the > induction/stimulation/epidural for 3 hours or less, or 2 liters of > fluid or less BEFORE the baby > was born, compared to the mothers that had > induction/stimulation/epidural for > more than 3 hours or more than 2 liters of fluid. > > Any takers? > > Jan Barger > Wheaton IL > > _http://motherofbridebyJan.blogspot.com_ > (http://motherofbridebyjan.blogspot.com/) > > *********************************************** > > To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail > To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) > To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet > All commands go to [log in to unmask] > > The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned > LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) > mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. 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