In a message  dated 7/21/2005 9:47:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time,   
[log in to unmask] writes:

......Then  I tell them  that the average full-term baby eats every 2  hours. 


Dear  Friends:
Is there any evidence for this thought?
I know that mothers are told that babies will  breastfeed 8-12  times in 
24 hours; that averages out to once every 2-3 hours. Just because  8 and 12 
divide 24 neatly is no a reason to teach that this is what babies do.  So  many 
women I work with are struggling mightily to adhere to this  arbitrary 
schedule; they wake 
deeply sleeping babies up and then become  upset when baby  doesn't feed well 
or 
injures the  mothers.
Many adults have been trained to have  three meals a  day; following the 
same logic, that means adults  should eat every 8 hours.   We all know that 
is 
not true! Why  should babies be expected to maintain a  schedule? It is much 
easier to  keep baby close, and breastfeed on cue. Feed babies at THEIR best  
time.
I wish mothers would pretend to be placentas for  a  while after the birth. 
Evidence tells us that baby drives the  milk supply;  only the baby knows when 
it needs the breast. We also know  that newborns can  snack in clusters, 
another common pattern.
Babies go to breast for food, for drink, for love,  for comfort,  for pain 
relief, and probably for a bunch of other reasons. Giving  mothers some 
schedule while they are learning to breastfeed has never, in my  clinical 
experience, be useful............unless the baby is preterm and isn't  giving feeding 
cues yet.
De Carvalho and others have  arrived at a figure of  140-160 minutes in 24 
hours that a baby  breastfeeds; those minutes are best  arranged by the baby.
warmly,

 
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct  Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human  Lactation
www.breastfeedingalwaysbest.com

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