Dear all,

Firstly, Ginni -- thank you!  What a sweet note....

Several weeks ago I wrote y'all about one of my moms that had been in a fire
that gutted her house.  Her preterm infant, Alex, was burned and was in the
burn unit of one of our university hospitals.  Well, LeeAnn stopped by
yesterday with Alex -- he is doing wonderfully, and is up to over 8 pounds;
adjusted age now three weeks old.  LeeAnn had an interesting story to tell
about the burn unit -- apparently, they had never had a breastfed baby there,
and didn't know quite what to do with Alex, especially since he wouldn't take
a bottle.  LeeAnn breastfed him virtually exclusively as she stayed at the
hospital around the clock -- wore a beeper so all the nurses had to do was
dial the number, put in 123# and she would know it was time to run up to the
unit to feed Alex if she happened to be in the lounge or in the cafeteria.
 The docs, who certainly weren't used to bf moms, would apologize every time
they came into the room when LeeAnn was bf until she finally put a big note
on the front of the chart -- "PLease stop apologizing to mom when she is bf!"

At one point, the dietician and nurses told her she would have to supplement
Alex's feedings with Similac 24 cal.  "Why?"  "Because there isn't enough
calories in bm."  "Oh," says LeeAnn, "How do you know?"  "Because bm has only
18 to 20 calories per ounce."  "What are those figures based on?"

"Well, those are researched & statistically based figures, so he needs
formula."

LeeAnn is not easily daunted.  "But that doesn't take into account the
differences between mothers, the age of the babies, or the change in milk
based on the age of the babies."

"But those are researched & statistically based figures, so he needs
formula..."

"Can you test caloric value of foods here?"

"Umm, yes, in the lab."

"So, test my milk."

"It will cost a lot."

"So put it on my bill -- it's high enough anyway!"

The upshot of the whole thing was that LeeAnn had her milk tested three
different times.  She would pump about three ounces, and they would run their
tests on it.  The first time it came back at 29 calories per ounce.  The
second time at 27 calories per ounce, and the third time, when she was really
stressed out, it came in at 30 calories per ounce.

There was no more argument from the staff about the quality of LeeAnn's milk!

I don't know what this means for the population in general, but I'd like to
think that many mothers have milk that exceeds the "usual" assumptions of 20
cal/ounce.  Truly Alex wouldn't have to drink all that much to pork out.  As
it is LeeAnn also has a lot of milk, and she and I had to work on bringing
supply down with Dennis, baby number 2 (also preterm; also never had a
bottle).  This was the fastest confirmation one could EVER have of a
statement that I made yesterday about the milk of a mom of a four month old
being higher in calories than of a newborn.  Yikes!

Jan Barger -- still nippy in Wheaton, IL