Thank you Winnie for putting into words what I feel. The tense exchange about stooling brings to mind my grandmother's generation. If you didn't have a bowel movement every day you were given castor oil. Obviously something was wrong with you. When I first went into nursing, the older people I took care of were "hung up" about making sure they had a bowel movement each and every day. Each one had their own cure (ie a cup of coffee every am, a suppository every afternoon, prune juice , a stool softener or an enema). When they were children this was reinforced to the point of obsession. As Winnie points out everybody has their own version of normal for themselves. If everything else is okay, let's not panic people into another generation of obsessors. Cheryl Muller Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 21:57:43 -0500 From: Jim & Winnie Mading <[log in to unmask]> Subject: stooling-what's normal Sorry to disagree with some of our experts, but I really feel that saying EVERYONE should move their bowels after every meal is in the same category as saying every baby should go 3 hours between feeding or everyone should sleep 8 hours every night. I know adults who eat a great variety of foods, but only stool every 2 or 3 days. I have seen many babies that go days between stools (after the first month) who seem to have no distress when they do have a big one and have been healthy in every way. Human beings are not carbon copies of each other. We each have our own "normal" patterns of eating, sleeping, voiding, stooling etc. etc. When one is "outside the average" on a consistent basis, certainly it is a good idea to check and see if there is a problem or if this is normal for that person. For example, when a baby consistently nurses less than 8 or more than 12-14 times in 24 hours, I like to check the latch, check for effective milk transfer, etc. but if baby is thriving, then that is most likely what's normal for THAT baby. To state that no baby should nurse less that 8 or more than 14 (or whatever number you may use) times in a day completely ignores individual variation. Same for patterns of elimination. When a baby is consistently out side the average ranges, it's a good idea to distinguish between the baby who's doing so because of a problem and the ones that "make a lie out of the norms" and are thriving "doing their own thing". Winnie *********************************************** *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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