The last time the AAP revised the guidelines on vitamin D drops and dropped the age at which drops should be introduced to right after birth, I combed the article to find any evidence to support that there was any difference in outcome between implementing that practice immediately or waiting until the baby is older -- say 2 weeks to a month of age. There was virtually NO research on introduction of vitamin D drops so early. So we really don't know if there is any additional benefit from shoving a dropper into the mouth of a 1, 2 or 3 day old infant that may warrant which might possibly contribute to oral aversions in some babies or cause some mothers to drop the vitamin D drops entirely because they don't like giving it to their babies. I've seen enough moms to know that this is frequently the reason why they abandon using the vitamin D drops. So it seems to me in the face of zero research to justify the earlier introduction of vitamin D drops, putting the drops on the mother's nipple in the early days when a baby is in the hospital until such time that using a dropper becomes less invasive once breastfeeding is firmly established is a very sensible idea. If you go to the AAP policy statements on vitamin D or iron supplementation -- you'll see that there is a neonatologist who questioned such early use of droppers -- but I'm not sure whether it was the iron or the D statement. Best, Susan Burger *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome