<<[log in to unmask] writes: When babies wait longer for feedings, the storage areas of the breast fill more, which means there is more milk to "drown" the baby. Dear Friends: Doesn't the work of Peter Hartman teach that when babies wait longer for feeds, the milk fills the breast and the rate of milk synthesis decreases? Peaker and Parker demonstrated that this is nature's dry up mechanism >> Dear Nikki, Yes, I agree that Feedback Inhibitor of Lactation works to *eventually* damp down the milk supply. But until that system kicks in adequately, lengthening the time between feeds allows the breasts to overfill. I have seen babies get so upset with the constant drowning that they refuse to come to breast. Some, we have been able to convince to try again, but a couple very stubborn babies were just *done*, that's it, thank you very much! We have to make the babies more comfortable at breast, so they don't decide to refuse it altogether. So allowing baby to come to breast more frequently does make for less milk in the storage areas, just like on growth spurt/frequency days. (How many of us have had moms call in a panic when that first growth spurt hits, because baby wants to breastfeed all the time and mom's breasts are flabby and she's sure "there's no milk in there", when in reality baby just hasn't given the storage areas time to fill because he is constantly feeding?) When we also instruct mom to use one breast for all feedings in a 4 hr. (6 hr., 12 hr., whatever) time period, the baby *does* drown on the initial feeding when the switch is made--until the FIL system has had an opportunity to work--but then the other feedings on that same breast during that 4-hr time frame are less difficult for the baby to handle, especially if we let him come to breast when he wants to rather than holding him off. Hopefully, when baby realizes that some of his feedings are more comfortable than others, he will hang in there and keep accepting the breast until the FIL system has had time to work and all the feedings are more comfortable. Dee Dee Kassing, BS, MLS, IBCLC Collinsville, Illinois, in central USA *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html