I've been doing some reading on the neurobiology of suckling and came across something that I thought might be interesting and *may* be applicable to those who are working with mothers and confronting the "baby must have been starving because he guzzled down a whole bottle"

This research is in relation to newborn rats but I wonder whether a similar mechanism might be involved in babies.

"pups younger than 10 days of age that were repeatedly provided with milk from a cannula placed at the back of the tongue continued to consume the milk until they were unable to breathe  because of severe distension of the gut. This demonstration of life threatening stomach engorgement semed to reinforce the idea that pups could not control intake once attached to the nipple even though these results appeared to directly contradict the earlier findings gathered under more natural conditions. It soon became clear that if milk is delivered forcibly or very rapidly the adjustments of intake that the pup is capable of displaying may be bypassed."

The quote is from Brake et al (1988). Exploiting the nursing niche: the infant's sucking and feeding in the context of teh mother-infant interaction. In Blass ed. Developmental psychobiology and behaviral ecology. Plenum Press.

Karleen Gribble
Australia

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

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