Hi
I was delighted to see Jan Riordan's article in the November 2005 JHL, which reached me a week ago, as it validates the observations to assess milk transfer used for years by experienced IBCLCs and others in Australia and the UK.  
Riordan J, Gill-Hopple K. Indicators of effective breastfeeding and estimates of breast milk intake. JHL 2005:21(4):406-412.
Now that the numbers have been crunched, I hope this will convince doubters that the use of well-honed clinical skills and judgment is valid.  Whichever method is used, I hope people will remember that other infant indicators continue to need to be noted, to support the evidence from a single feed, i.e. urinary and faecal output, growth, skin tone, alertness, etc.
Years ago in Australia, too often assessment of breastfeeding adequacy had slipped into a lazy dependence on a single test weigh and the previous week's weight gain, with other indicators largely ignored (quite apart from a lack of understanding of varying milk yields from feed to feed).  Anywhere that scales have become the main or only guide, skills in other observations can be lost - but they can be taught and learnt.
Cheers
Virginia
in rainy Brisbane

             ***********************************************

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