Diane Perrone wrote:
>I learned from a dear friend, Peg Jansson, IBCLC on Chicago's north
>shore, the following mathematical method for estimating a baby's needs:
>
>Weigh the baby and change the weight to ounces only. (e.g. 6 lb 10 oz
>baby would be 106 ounces.)
>Divide the weight in ounces by 6. (106 divided by 6=17 2/3 )
>
>This is the amount of milk needed in a 24 hour period. Divide that by
>the number of feedings the baby receives to get the answer as to how
>much the baby needs at each feeding. If the baby is getting 8 feedings,
>baby would need just a bit over 2 oz each time. For 12 feedings, baby
>would need about 1 1/2 oz.
>
>You can change this into metric and it works just as well. You can
>teach mothers how to estimate baby's needed intake as baby grows. You
>will find that most bottle fed babies are over fed because of the
>physics of bottles and baby's vacuum on the nipple.
Re after the newborn period: Peter Hartmann's team (and others before
him) has demonstrated that babies, at least those between 1 and 6
months, being exclusively breastfed, do *not* increase their intake
significantly at all as they grow bigger, which blows all
calculations of intake based on their weight out of the water! The
amounts in the first few days are tiny (only a few mls of colostrum
on the first day) and climb rapidly to the 'plateau' after the milk
comes in, so I am not sure if a mathematical formula using weight
would ever be correct??
The amounts in Peter's studies were consistent for an individual baby
but were *very* variable between babies - from less than 500 ml per
24 hours to over a litre. There was no way of telling from casual
observations which babies were taking a lot and which took less. All
were happy, thriving babies.
I understand that there are mathematical calculations for
artificially-fed babies, and we used to use one of these for
breastfed babies, as we had no other way of estimating this. We used
to use 150 ml/kg/day, I think it was. We stopped using this a few
years ago, once Peter's data were revealed. I now also wonder how
physiological this calculation is even for artificially-fed babies.
If they are as variable as breastfed babies, it will be OK for some,
insufficient for others and too much for yet others.
So it is much harder to tell a mother who is expressing what amount
her baby needs per day. She needs to discover this for herself more
by trial and error than anything else. This makes sense to me -
adults all don't eat the same amount according to their body weight -
why should babies?
Joy
--
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Australian Breastfeeding Association counsellor
Perth, Western Australia. mailto:[log in to unmask]
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