Helen Curless writes: <My response to a physician who wanted babies fed before 8 hours was that he & I have about enough grey hairs to remember that 30 years ago, all babies in our area were kept NPO(nothing by mouth) for the first 24 hours without problems.> You tell 'em, Helen. Even further back than 30 years ago, most baby boomers and older (at least in the U.S.) were born during times of "twilight sleep" (demerol and scopolamine) during labor and general anesthetics during childbirth. The babies were sleepy and mucousy. That was one of the main reasons most hospitals kept them NPO at least 12 hours, with glucose water q. 4 h x 3 for the next 12, to act as a laxative for meconium. There were so many babies and such a shortage of help it would have been impossible to run a hospital with a central nursery any other way.It is interesting to hear that your hospital was even keeping them NPO for 24 hours even 30 years ago. Feeding trends, like hemline fashions, seem to have changed frequently in the last century. Jean *************** K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC Dayton, Ohio USA ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html