As to the baby getting no food or liquid for days.  There was a story
on either the devastating California or Mexico earthquake where
newborns were found alive in the hospital nursery's rubble after nine
days, though their moms had either been crushed or starved to death.

While selling nursing bras to first time moms who worry that their
milk will take days to come in, I have told them to put the baby to
the breast often to get plenty of practice on their still soft breast
just in case of engorgement later.

But I also say that if those babies in the earthquake were OK, two to
three days wait for milk is OK too.  They buy into that.

From a personal experience:  I breastfed my nephew when he was 10
days old.  Twenty five years ago, my sister-in-law had an emergency
C-section for breech position.  Her newborn also had congenital hip,
probably from not being able to stretch out his legs out inside
her small pelvis.

In all the shock and her youth, her fight/flight reflex kept her
letdown from happening.  I first visited them at day 10 and she had
not been to the ped's office since discharge.  Her baby had lost
from 5#14 to 4#8 when we took our own scale over.  She asked
me to BF him that night.

I had my own breastfeeding second daughter who was five weeks old
at the time.  I did nurse her son.  Her baby triggered three
letdowns.  She tried to nurse my daughter in return.  My baby
wailed as there was no milk forthcoming from her.

Her son passed his meconium the next morning when I changed his
diaper and I BF him again before she took him in to the pediatrician.

The doctor gave her *permission* to put him on formula.  Once she did,
her milk came in.  She claims he refused her breast after that.  Her
husband bought a goat that week as they had acreage to clear and this
baby was then fed a raw goat milk formula based on Adele Davis' book.
She successfully BF her second son a few years later.

Judy Ritchie,
Not an LC, but getting knowledge and common sense from all your posts.

As I told Dr. Jack Newman, another reason to breastfeed is so babies
don't get fluoridated formula.  Hurrah for that!  Avoiding fluoride
contributes to higher IQ also.  See:

"In Harm's Way...Toxic Threats to Child Development"  Fluoride pp 90-92
http://www.igc.org/psr/ihwrept/ihwcomplete.pdf

JudysIntimateApparel.com

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