In a message dated 9/21/01 9:02:44 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< These are just guesses, of course, but I think that in all probability our

babies get many things from these frequent short nursings that we are not

even aware of. And I agree with Jan that when this seems to lead to

"overfeeding" and an unhappy baby, offering one breast repeatedly seems to

help. In fact, I find that mothers who are caring for their babies this way

often figure it out on their own - they soon know by the baby's behaviour if

he wants the "fuller" breast or the "emptier" breast. >>

When my dd was born 9 yrs ago, I knew much less about bf'ing than I do now
(even though I was a well-read LLLL tandem nursing her older brother). There
seemed to be nothing in the available literature about OAMER and such. My
poor dd sputtered, refused to nurse and cried for about 20minutes before
returning to the breast. She was upset very easily and was difficult to take
anywhere. But, she nursed really often.  B/c I wore her in a sling all of the
time, I found it easiest to nurse only on the left side for repeated
feedings. So, the upright feeding in the sling, the multiple feedings on one
side and a coincidental addition of a calcium/magnesium supplement to my
routine resloved our problems by about 6 mos. Also, I had 6 breast infections
by 6 mos, which I'm sure resolved so quickly in part due to the frequent
feeds (and homeopathy). I guess the biggest thing is that if she had been
externally scheduled by me, I never would have followed her lead in resolving
the problems.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA

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