To add to Marsha Walker's very helpful post, I can share another couple of references. Neville,M. et al: Studies in human lactation: milk volumes in lactating women during the onset of lactation and full lactation. Am J Clin Nutr 1988, 48:1375-86. While more about intake than capacity, the authors do state: "Milk transfer to the infant was low on days 1 and 2 and increased rapidly to 498+-129 g/d on Day 5..." The next reference speaks more directly to capacity. It reported on a group of 60 normal Chinese newborns born at term with good Apgars. Group A newborns were breastfed on demand without supplements. Group B newborns received mixed feeds, breastfeeding 4 times daily and receiving 6 formula feeds/day. Wang,Y et al: Preliminary Study on the Blood Glucose Level in the Exclusively Breastfed Newborn, J Trop Peds 1994, 40:187-88. "The amount of breastmilk secreted by the mother is suitable for the variation in the capacity of the stomach of the newborns day by day. The capacity of newborn stomach after birth is very small in the first 2 days. In a 3 kg baby, for example, the average physiological capacity of the stomach is 6 ml on the first day and 12 ml on the second day after birth, while the average mother's colostrum is 25-56 ml on the first day and 113-185 on the second day." The authors note further: "By the sixth day after birth, the weight increment in Group A is even higher than the newborns in the control group. Basing on the rate of increment, the average time required to regain their birth weight is 9.36 days in Group A, slightly less than 9.44 days in the control group." This study seems to bear out my own clinical observations that normal, well-feeding breastfed infants do fine on just colostrum, grow as well or better than reference babies (i.e. artificially fed infants), and early growth faltering is a red flag for poor feeding. When we identify an infant who struggles to re-gain birth weight by day 10, we can begin gentle interventions to protect the baby, the milk supply, and the potential to breastfeed. We need to remember other research that suggests that mothers who accurately perceive that their infant is hungry will begin to compensate. We need to be available to make sure the compensations preserve a normal outcome, which is defined as full and exclusive breastfeeding with excellent infant growth. Barbara Wilson-Clay BSEd, IBCLC Austin Lactation Associates http://www.lactnews.com *********************************************** 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