Barbara writes:  A mom who called to report her 8 wk old's weight and run by me what
HCP said to her; "Baby's get all they need to eat in the first seven minutes, so after
that nursing is just for comfort-a pacifier or thumb is fine to substitute," "at 12
pounds a baby doesn't need to eat at night and should sleep 12 hr,"

I've been around long enough to remember that this advice comes from a study published

in the 1970's that indicated that babies get 90% of the milk in the breast within the
first 7 minutes.  How they determined it, I can't remember.  Of course, this was also
before we understood about foremilk and hindmilk, so even if it was correct (which is
highly doubtful), it did not take into account that the last 10% might be the milk
that puts on weight and leaves the baby feeling satisfied.

This study confirmed many people's prejudices.  I can't remember any other single
study that has been repeated more times for more years.  It's truly amazing.  Too bad
some of the better studies have not left this same deep impression on the public
psyche!

More mothers that I can count were told by their doctors that babies who breastfed
longer than 7 minutes per breast were just taking advantage of them.  They were also
encouraged to switch breasts after that time and not to let the baby breastfeed longer

than that on the other breast.  Needless to say, that short-circuited a lot of
breastfeeding relationships.

Hope this clarifies.

Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC
Chicago suburbs, Illinois USA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html