>   So, while I would agree with Heather that a BABY who resorts to 
>feeding frequently during the day to compensate for inadequate 
>feeding at night is acting normally, I would not say that this is a 
>normal situation at all.  The baby is COMPENSATING for deprivation.


I think this is likely - the baby is 'ordering up' the milk he now 
needs, and this is a normal response. The mother's breasts will feel 
soft and flat because of both the (unaccustomed, to her) frequency of 
feeds,  *and* because it is normal for mother's breasts to change as 
breastfeeding goes on.

Malke says the baby has not been 'trained' to sleep 10 hours and will 
sometimes sleep longer sleeping alone.

This is still entirely consistent with a western ideal of no sleep 
disturbance at night. Babies who co-sleep from birth, who  are cared 
for by being held in very close contact with mum in the day,  and who 
are fed at every mild feeding cue  *never* (dangerous word, I know!) 
go 10 hours at night.  I say 'never' - I have never come across any 
who do, put it that way, either directly or indirectly.

Mothers don't always have to 'train' their babies to sleep for long 
periods. All some have to do is to ignore mild feeding cues.

This is a bit anecdotal, but I do notice that the mother who gets a 
fright because her three to four month baby shows poor growth or 
alternatively starts asking for feeds like crazy, often  reports that 
the baby has always been a 'dream baby', sleeping through and only 
feeding 3 to 4 hrly, and describes a happy, laid-back baby who is 
easy to entertain (these babies often have older sibs who provide the 
entertainment).  The baby's inconvenient requests for feeding (when 
the mother is about to collect the older sibs from school, say) are 
easily ignored and the baby does not protest. Maybe the baby's 
personality is such that they have learned not to ask - the feeding 
cues they have shown get ignored, and they stop making them. Other 
babies might yell; these babies don't.

My experience is that deliberately and frequently feeding the baby 
day and night does turn these situations around - the mother takes 
the initiative and does not wait to be yelled at.

>
>Now, I have many questions that I have no true answer for.  Why is 
>it that the Kung tribe is reported to feed their babies some 20 
>times per day -- and their babies reportedly never cry?  Yet this is 
>in direct contradiction to all of our obsession with "oversupply" 
>and "foremilk/hindmilk" imbalance.  Could it be that the longer 
>stretches we make our infants wait for feeds then sometimes creates 
>an "apparent" oversupply because the poor baby has been trained to 
>wait longer and then has to cope with that very fast flow that 
>overwhelms that baby -- to then be trained into waiting a longer 
>stretch for another surge?


I have always reckoned this to be the case!

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

http://heatherwelford.posterous.com

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

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome