Lisa and all,
I share your same curiosity. I facilitate a weekly Mother-to-Mother
breastfeeding group  and the range of weight gain is amazing. Many young
babies will gain 15 oz's in one week. The average is 7 - 8 oz. However I
have one baby who only gains 4 to 4.5 oz per week. This baby is thriving
and does not ask for more. Mom does not use pacifiers, sleeps with baby,
makes lots of milk and nurses often, total demand feeds. The baby looks
thin to me but the mother is tall and very lean and mother reports her
husband is over 6 ft and also very lean. So this baby is on the low end of
the bell curve and I wonder about genetic programming? I have no answers
but I  do think that each baby requires different amounts of fat and milk
volume.
Star Siegfried RN,BA,IBCLC Arcata, CA

>
>Date:    Tue, 21 Jun 2005 09:10:11 -0700
>From:    Lisa Marasco IBCLC <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: FTT, slow growth
>
>Pam and all,
>I may not have been clear enough in what I was searching out. When I am
>wondering about those low growth babies, formula or breastfed, I am not
>thinking of the failure to thrive infant with organic or psychological
>(neglect/abuse) issues. I'm pondering the concept of babies who were
>programmed to grow slowly as a variation of normal. My musings are to how
>often low growth rate is actually a norm for the child and not related to
>any pathologic factors, be it lack of milk, infant depression, fear of pain,
>avoidance of feeding discomfort, etc. I'm wondering how often we might
>attribute low growth to being genetically programmed when in actuality there
>was an underlying cause that was never picked up. What might the true
>percentage be of babies who by nature were meant to grow slowly?
>
>One of my clients had hypoplasia and struggling milk supply that with two
>babies was brought to about 95% of baby's needs each time. Her babies nursed
>often, she took galactogogues, and it was a lot of work to maintain. In the
>early months supplemental milk was used and needed to maintain growth. I
>followed these girls both for months because their growth rates never
>stabilized and sometimes dropped to 2 or 3oz for a week. They eventually
>rejected their bottles of supplement even though their growth rate was quite
>borderline. I always felt that if mom's supply was 100% they would have
>grown a bit faster and more consistently; it seemed that the girls just
>didn't like bottles/formula compared to mom and were willing to go without
>even though they could have used it.
>
>How often does an apparently happy and content baby limit their intake and
>grow slowly?  Or does low self-regulation more often occur with a risk
>factor?
>
>~Lisa
>
>             ***********************************************
>
>

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