Rachel A common scenario in this part of the world is that a mother with a baby with very low weight gain at several weeks/months of age fiinally seeks help with breastfeeding. A history reveals that the health visitor told her several weeks/months previously that her baby's fussy symptoms (crying/colic) are due to the baby not getting enough "hindmilk". The mother duly complies with advice to keep the baby on one breast per breastfeed and not to switch breasts more often than every 3 hours. The rationale seems to be that using both breasts per feeding means that the baby is only getting the "watery" foremilk, and that keeping the baby on one breast for longer will increase the fat content in the milk and thus the weight gain. I think this comes from a myth-interpretation of the 1988 Woolridge/Fisher paper. However, a subsequent detailed analysis of the weight record reveals that the baby's weight began faltering way before the block-feeding recommendation, and that advice to effectively block-feed has only made things worse - from gaining inadequately, the baby progresses to gaining very poorly - sometimes very poorly indeed. And because the mother has been infrequently draining her breasts (once every 6 hours) for several weeks..... and because the baby's nutrition has become so compromised that he basically gulps for 2 minutes and then flutter-sucks on one breast, leading to lower and lower milk transfer, it can take that much longer to turn this situation around than it would have done if some basic checks and maths had been done at the _first_ hint that the baby's intake was insufficient. By now, it is often really necessary to use formula supplements to protect the baby's nutrition, and it can take weeks for the mother to do all the work of breastfeeding/supplementing/pumping to re-kick-start her own breastmilk production to once again meet the baby's needs. So I do share the frustration expressed by others that this is often very poor advice. I've seen the over-supply/block-feeding thing again and again on some of the mother-to-mother message boards too. It seems to fall into the category of 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' !! This is such a _waste_ when a little of the right information at the right time would have enabled the mother to carry on exclusively breastfeeding and - most importantly - for her baby to thrive. Pamela Morrison IBCLC Rustington, England At 05:00 21/08/2013, you wrote: >In what way is >block feeding being inappropriately used so that it is compromising growth? > >Rachel Myr, reluctant oversupply oracle and eternally grateful to Gonneke >for her article, in >Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** 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