Dear Lactnet friends,
I'm posting this on behalf of a colleague who came to me in tears today
feeling that she had mis-guided a family in the hospital yesterday.  I have
seen variations on this situation occur before--and I wonder WHY they occur in
healthy, full term babies.

At about 36 hours of age, the infant was observed to seem frantic and hungry
when he came off the breast after usually 30-40 minutes of steady suckling.
He was calm while nursing.  Three wet diapers were recorded in the previous 9
hours, along with one stool.  The parents were assisted with various calming
techniques and the baby nursed again about an hour later--coming off the
breast and acting in the same way.  After the third nursing period (again
about 1 hour later) that the LC assisted with, the infant's temp was taken and
found to be 101.

At that point, he was "admitted" to the SCN, where the first MD order was
formula, followed by a septic workup.  Glucose (obtained earlier) was 60.
Sodium was described as "high" to me by the LC.  Preliminary results on
cultures are all negative.  Temperature returned to normal and has remained
there since baby has been given 1 oz of formula after every other nursing, via
finger feeding.

Why would a healthy, full term baby become dry within the first 36 hours of
birth??  This baby's birth weight was 9 pounds.  This baby had nursed
frequently during the first 24 hours of life and had not exhibited the
frantic-type behavior earlier.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Toni Pestro, RN, IBCLC
Cincinnati, OH