Dear Lactnet

I'm still pondering the implication of testing breast milk with a
creamatocrit....Testing breast milk for its calorific value may possibly be
of some use in a pre-term baby, as Jan suggests,   (though I'd love some of
our breastfeeding friendly paeds to have some input on this). But for a
'simple'  slow gainer-baby, shouldn't we be a lot more cautious?

Anyone out there remember test weighing? I bet you do...and what a mess and
misery it caused. Only the rarest and most bf-ignorant of hcps advise test
weighing these days in the UK (don't know about the rest of the Lactnet
world).   The information it yielded was almost always duff, yet it took a
*long time* to disappear as an intervention, once it took hold.

If we go along with hunt-the-calories, and make it easier to do so, you can
bet your bottom dollar that for some hcps, this will be the first thing
they suggest when there's any doubt  about a baby's weight gain - even when
that doubt is spurious, and based on zero  understanding of breastfeeding
and growth. For starters, mothers will be asked to express. That's not easy
for everyone to do - at least with test weighing the milk was already in
the baby! Then, they'll have to wait for the results, and take a blow to
their confidence they may never get over.

Okay, testing breast milk is interesting and probably even valuable if
you're doing an academic project. But IMHO the whole notion of testing an
individual's milk in order for it to pass some unknown or cow's milk-based
norm should have a health warning stamped right across it.Or am I just
paranoid????

Heather

Heather Welford Neil
NCT  bfc UK