Heard some doozies this past week in Bham AL when my SIL had her 2nd baby -
directly from the LC....dont' know what kind of certification or training she
had:
LC: How often is he nursing?
SIL: He nurses several times per hour, for several hours, but then sleeps
solidly for about four hours, sometimes up to six at night.
LC: You'll be exhausted if you let him nurse so frequently, you should try to
get him to nurse every two to three hours. And you should never let him
sleep more than 3 hours....or at the very most, four.
LC:Your last baby was born 2 1/2 years ago, right?
SIL: Yes
LC: Well a few things have changed...remember how you couldn't use soap on
your nipples? Now you're supposed to wash them once per day with soap and
water, but no more than that/
SIL: Oh.
LC: It's okay to use a pacifier if you want to try to stretch out his
feedings to 2-3 hours.
SIL: Mmm. H+e doens't want it, he wants to nurse.
LC: He just wants to suck, he's not actually hungry.
SIL: Well, he acts hungry, and only nursing makes him happy.
LC: Both LLL and the AAP recommend nursing 8-12 times in a 24 hour period -
which works out to every 2-3 hours. I just don't want you to get exhausted
by having to get up so often in the night to nurse.
SIL: He doens't nurse that often during the night - only a couple of times.
The day nursing is so frequent.
LC: Well, he shouldn't be sleeping for more than 2-3 hours at a stretch
during the night...
[sil stars to nurse baby]
LC: you want to make sure that his mouth is open all of the way
SIL: yeah, I was wondering about that, he won't open it all the way.
LC: well, just keep trying, he'll get it
>>>>end of conversation....went on to discuss other things.
I was *furious*. SIL doesn't take information in very well, so I didn't get
involved. wanted to talk with LC later but couldn't find her.
My SIL is *not* a committed nurser. She started supplementing with formula
at 3 weeks pp with baby 1 b/c 'she couldn't keep up'. She didn't know what a
frequency day was, or that one would be occuring at about that time. She had
undiagnosed thrush, cracked and bleeding nipples from a bad latch and the
yeast. at that point, she began pumping and bottlefeeding - only nursing at
the breast for bedtime.
The LC's in the hospital couldn't manage to give good advice on how to open
babies mouth....how could one even *be* and LC and not know how to show a mom
to simply press down on babies chin????
How can an LC be so oblivious to the biology of breastfeeding so as to
*discourage* a mom from frequent nursing when the mom is *totally* okay with
it????
Over the course of the weekend, I was able to mention small things to
SIL...like "wow, I bet that you find that it's so much easier to nurse E than
it was C....even though he nurses to frequently, it's only for a couple
minutes each time." her response was a resounding *yes*.
yeah!!!! any care to comment on the why's and wherefore's of this particular
LC's information? b/c this seems to be the constant stream of advice from
LC's, in Bham, in Atlanta...wherever, that it makes it difficult for me to
trust that any LC is giving out good info...but I know from this list that
there are excellent LC's out there who do give mom fantastic info. Why the
differences in info?
katherine in atl
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