In a message dated 3.27.02 12:04:36 AM, Natalie writes:

>For the past 4.5 years, I've been going with the theory that a healthy
>mother of a
>full-term, healthy baby should attempt to nurse 10-14 times in a 24 hour
>period.
>Sometimes both parties will sleep through, or baby will be uncooperative,
>but if
>you attempt it, you'll probably get the bare-minimum 8 nursings per day.
>This is
>to continue UNTIL THE BABY'S FIRST NOTICEABLE GROWTH SPURT, usually around
>3 weeks
>of age, at which time (yippee! congratulations! Mazel Tov!) feeding on
>cue/demand
>is the new way to go.

I have enjoyed reading and musing over the posts regarding feeding frequency
but haven't felt compelled to offer any more until the above.
During my time as a hospital LC (big hospital, lots of deliveries!) we
received at least 100-200 telephone calls/week from Moms, Dad, MDs etc, with
questions that varied BUT the most common ?? was regarding feeding frequency.
The MOST typical of the fdng frequency calls were from parents in varying
states of anxiety over the the fact that their babies were feeding less than
the *prescribed* number of 8-12 times day. After lengthy discussion it was
most often determined that these babies were getting plenty of milk ie. milk
in, great wt. gain, output etc. This caused me to rethink the *dictum* for
reasons besides the  obvious one (it was wrong!). Another big concern was the
fact that despite the often preponderance of evidence to the contrary,
parents were still concerned enough to call, they didn't have the confidence
to arrive at their own well founded conclusions. Since our job SHOULD include
helping to empower parents, our teaching and guidelines should be given in a
manner that supports this goal.
I have since then adjusted my recommendations to reflect what I found to be
the wider variety of *normal* and while I still suggest that a baby should
feed as "frequently as possible" (8-12x) before the milk *comes in*, I also
suggest that the feeding frequency MAY *fall off* as the baby begins to take a
 much larger amt with each feeding and that the total number may be as few as
6-7x/day, and if gaining well, this is perfectly OK. As we all know many of
these *relatively* infrequent feeders are HUGE gainers!
Another point to keep in mind.....MANY babies don't have identifiable growth
spurts. As for the ability to predict a growth spurt at 3 wks of age.....I
haven't noticed that to be consistent at all.
Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc
Franklin,Massachusetts

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