Helen Curless writes:

<My response to a
physician who wanted babies fed before 8 hours was that he & I have
about enough grey hairs to remember that 30 years ago, all babies in our
area were kept NPO(nothing by mouth) for the first 24 hours without
problems.>

You tell 'em, Helen. Even further back than 30 years ago, most baby
boomers and older (at least in the U.S.) were born during times of
"twilight sleep" (demerol and scopolamine) during labor and general
anesthetics during childbirth. The babies were sleepy and mucousy.

That was one of the main reasons most hospitals kept them NPO at least 12
hours, with glucose water q. 4 h x 3 for the next 12, to act as a
laxative for meconium.

There were so many babies and such a shortage of help it would have been
impossible to run a hospital with a central nursery any other way.It is
interesting to hear that your hospital was even keeping them NPO for 24
hours even 30 years ago.

Feeding trends, like hemline fashions, seem to have changed frequently in
the last century.

Jean
***************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA


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