Hi all,
Glad this was brought up. I have been wondering of late regarding the blank recommendation of bfg from one side only each meal, from birth. This reference does refer to engorgement, mastitis and colic, but it does not refer to FTT and insufficient milk production.  I have had MANY clients who had been instructed by the hospital staff, to feed from one side only, whose babies just did not gain weight. I did followup on them all, and after switching to both sides, the babies weight increased.  No one can determine ahead of time, how often a certain baby will bf and stimulate production. This means that it could very well be that by feeding one side only, the other side gets stimulated (or emptied for prevention of engorgement) once in even 6-8 hours, if the baby is going 3-4 hours between feeds. Many newborns are sleeping for a few hour stretches, which can be detrimental to production and can cause engorgement. IMHO less can go wrong by trying to encourage feeding from both sides each and every meal, (when humanly possible' of course, and not force feeding) then telling each mom that they "can" feed from one side only if they so desire. Until now, I assumed this recommendation came only from hospitals, but I heard today that this advice was given by an IBCLC.  I get alot of engorged clients as well, though not all are bfg on one side, and it does not, as the study implies, cause MORE cases of engorgement, but yet again I have the feeling that it (one sided feeding) doesn't necessarily encourage optimal results. Has the recommendation changed? I am still sold on the idea of recommending both sides, if baby is willing, and explaining that if baby is not willing and there arent' optimal results, then to encourage baby to take both sides, by changing diaper to wake him before offering second side. And of course, the opposite, if by feeding from both sides, there is OALR or oversupply, then to recommend trying one sided bfg. What are your thoughts on this? this may have been discussed over the years, but this is something that can change over the years, depending on research and new findings.

Ellen Shein, IBCLC,. LLLL
Tel Aviv

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