I'm very interested in the thread of how soon a normal newborn needs to
nurse.  Saw a baby earlier this week, 8 days old, full term, 3rd baby, six
pounds twelve ounces at birth.  Mother was given Demerol about forty-five
minutes before the baby was born.   Baby had not nursed by six hours and by
eight hours the staff was trying finger feeding, syringes, SNS and bottles
of formula.  Hmm, I wonder why they didn't try cup feeding too.    When I
saw the baby at eight days, she was getting expressed breast milk by bottle
and the mother was exhausted.

Apparently there were no tests done to pick up any abnormalities such as
hypoglycemia before they tried to supplement.  The comment was that the
baby would get de-hydrated  and starve.

As a historical note, when my first-born arrived thirty-one years ago, it
was hospital policy that all babies were kept NPO fro the first twenty-four
hours before they got their first feed of glucose water.  Breastfeeding did
not go well at all.

Has anyone ever considered observing the baby?

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