Hello again,

I thought I'd give an update on the baby who wasn't urinating at day +4
when I first saw her (was urinating about twice a day, still had
meconium).

Mother is one of my (adult) friend's moms, and my initial intent was not
to go to "help" her with breastfeeding on the day I visited, but rather
to touch base with her incase she needed help eventually.  I didn't
expect to find them in the kind of state I found them in.

Baby was born full term, 3rd child of a 45-yr old mother; had blood
incompatibility jaundice and was sleepy to begin with.  Had been
supplemented at the hospital but mom was nursing without supplements at
home.  Baby was 7 lbs 12 oz at birth and 7 lbs 0 oz at day +4 when I saw
them.  The actual nursing (latch) looked ok to me, and mom said she had
a very minor amount of pain that went away after 2-3 sucks of the baby.

As I last posted to the list, I told the mom to put this baby to the
breast as often as possible, & to use breast compression.

The update is this:  I saw this baby on the friday and told the mom to
do all this on the saturday (breast compression, nursing frequently,
etc.).  By the monday (3 days after I saw them), baby was urinating and
had put back on 3 of the 12 oz that she had lost.  Obviously things were
going better.  That monday was when the local nurse made her visit in
the afternoon to weigh and see how things were going.  Mom said that
baby was "constantly" nursing (she'd nurse every 2 hours but take about
1.5 hours to finnish the job).  This looks bad in one sense, but given
she'd put on some weight, my suspicion was that she was getting over
some weakness and making up for it.

The nurse told the mom that she was doing well and could put the baby on
a !@#$?/$?! schedule of 3 hours during the day, 4 at night.  :-((((((

By thurday, 3 days later, baby had again lost the 3 oz of weight she'd
gained (of course).  Visit to the paediatrician ended up with the paed.
saying she had to supplement.  She has been supplmenting 1-2 oz after
every nursing session by bottle.  :-((((  I have arranged to get a #5
french gavage tube (it will be coming in the mail from Québec city
hopefully within 2-3 days...can't really get it much sooner! :-() and
will try as best I can to help her to learn to use that to supplement,
hoping she can eventually wean off the supplment.  I have never done
this myself, only seen photos and read about it, so I'm a bit of a
beginner myself on this base.  AT least baby seems to be nursing WELL
now, and doesn't show (YET) any signs of nipple confusion/preference. 
I'm hoping the mom will take to the gavage tube so we can avoid that
possibility from occurring in the future.

I was complaining of this to my mother-in-law yesterday, asking if she
would take her cardiac troubles to her podiatrist...  ;-)

To be honest, the IBCLC letters (if I had them) would mean nothing to
this mom, but seeing an RN after my name, or an MD would put a LOT more
weight in what I had to say to her.  Unfortunately I'm just a lowly mom
who "was lucky and had enough milk".  :-(

One step forward, 2 steps back...  :-(

Fio
ressource person with Allaitement Québec
Mama to Sandrine Leïlou, 13/03/00, toddler nursling.

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