Rachel Myr said:

>Michel Odent (again!) found that home-born babies who were in constant contact
>with their mothers, did not lose weight at all after birth, but began gaining
>right away.
>
Which was exactly our experience.  No, my daughter was not born at home,
but she was born in a birth centre which from all she knew, could
ressemble our home bedroom (double bed, nice homey room) and she was
never once separated from me.  Newborn exam took place several hours
after her birth, after she had nursed several times and slept a bit in
my arms...it took place at the foot of the bed and I was close by all
the time.  No drop in weight...a plateau for 2 days and then a gradual gain.

>I have seen plenty of babies who aren't really that eager before the second or
>third day, some longer.  But I have seen plenty who come out, latch within the
>first hour or two, and stay there.  Nobody can convince me that their total
>intake the first two days is under 100 ml.
>
I would say my daughter was one who stayed latched as much as possible.
 I spent the most of the first night waking up frequently to latch her
back on because as soon as she'd loose the nipple she'd start
fussing/crying.  She was pretty much a perma-latch baby for a long time.

>Some of them are having yellowish,
>curdy stools before 36 hours, have passed meconium in abundance, and still
>have not lost weight.
>

In our case (scenario of one), meconium was clearing up around about 48
hours after the birth if not before...changing from black through dark
green to finally yellow by day 3 if not earlier.  I'm not *sure* I
remember correctly, but I think we only had 2 really tarry meconium
poops before the change started happening, and *maybe* 2 more transition
poops before they became yellow.

>Simply having big clocks on the walls of all the
>rooms matters, a lot.
>
This does not surprise me, given our society and its "expectations".  So
many people come to our breastfeeding support meetings and gape at us
when we suggest that newborns might actually want to nurse every 2 hours
or so, more in hot weather.  I am glad I read enough to realize that
*more* than every 2h. could be "normal" and was not worried at all when
my daughter wanted to nurse about every 20 minutes during the day (I
guess SHE understood the type of nursing humans were probably programmed
for, in the traditional hunter-gatherer culture)...at least to begin
with.  :-)

However, I must say that while we like to portray every 2-3 hours as
"today's norm", and every 20 min. usually goes hand in hand with people
claiming "not enough milk...supplement" etc., there ARE some exceptions.
 I know one lady who had a perma-latch first child, a very intense needs
child...and her 2nd, her daughter, nursed every 4 hours round the clock
from day one and if she even TRIED to offer her the breast before 4
hours it would be refused.  Since weight gain was "normal" and she
developped (mentallly/physically) well, one can only assume this was
"normal" for her body...although I have always thought it was
interesting that in this family of (now) 4, the sons, who all nursed
much more frequently than every 4 hours, are the skinny beanpole types
(perhaps something to do with the genetics of being a male in their
family, who knows...or maybe based on something *else*), none moreso
than the one who nursed the most frequently, and this lone girl is the
only one who doesn't look like a stringbean...she's not *chubby* by any
means, but she doesn't need more fattening up either.  ;-)  One can't
help but wonder if, over and above the different genetics of boy vs.
girl in this family, there MIGHT be something to the idea that the less
frequently one feeds, the more fat one gets deposited...  ;-)

Of course my own daughter, while she is off "the charts" on weight
(below them), and almost off by height, is neither fat nor
skinny...rather like the girl in this family too.  I would not call her
a beanpole anyhow...she did look like a little buddah while still
exclusively breastfed, but thinned down with solids and once she started
moving, and didn't gain any weight between about 10 and 27 months or so
(probably a lot of Dr.'s would have classed her as FTT for not gaining
for so long but as she was meeting milestones, and is healthy as a
horse, I didn't see any cause for worry).

Just some thoughts today...

Fio
ressource person with Allaitement Québec
Nursing Mama to Sandrine, 31 mos, and #2, 11/2002

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