Dear Dr. Paula,

I have had an opportunity to look at your web page on breastfeeding, and
I feel that some of your information may cause confusion for new
parents.  For example, your information about colostrum is definitely
surprising.  There *is* enough colostrum in the first few days, but the
baby has to get it.  Unfortunately, many babies are not getting latched
on well, and when that happens, they do not get the milk that is
available, and, at the same time, they may cause the mother nipple
damage.  I am astonished that you would say that babies just are not
hungry during the first few days.  Indeed, many babies are extremely
hungry in the first few days.

In some traditional societies mothers do feed water (though not sugar
water) to their babies until the colostrum has gone, but this is because
of a mistaken belief that colostrum is harmful.  There are other
traditional societies, at least as many, if not more, where babies
indeed are put to the breast immediately and allowed to suck at will.
Though I would not say that sugar water should *never* be given to
babies in the first few days, good management of the mother and baby
would result in *very few* babies requiring sugar water.  Unfortunately,
very few babies also get good help with breastfeeding in the first days
(or after, for that matter).

I will not go into a point by point discussion of where I disagree with
you, but might I suggest that you might wish to update your web page
with more current information?  If you wish, I have patient handouts
which I would be willing to share with you.  I could send them by email,
but if you wish them formatted, pleased send your address and I would be
pleased to send them to you.

Yours truly,


Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC (pediatrics)
Breastfeeding Support Programmes (Toronto)