Interesting this should come up. Recently I had a mother who was told, she didn't have to feed both sides by a lactation specialist at another clinic. Her baby became failure to thrive and thus she came to see me. I called her doctor to work a plan of care since the doctor and I did not have the same recommendations. The doctor told me that this exact scenerio had happened a few times in the last month and all the mothers had come from the same clinic. It appears that the problem was not that the advice was incorrect per se but that the mother heard "only feed one side". I agree we should not have "rules" but there does need to be guidelines and mothers of newborns should generally be told to offer both sides at each feeding. I would further recommend that the mother be reassured its ok to feed just one side if and only if the issue is brought up by the mom and you know she has a generous supply with a thriving infant. If you give any other advice then you should clarify that you are changing the usual guidelines specifically for this mom and baby for the following reasons... I would assert that at this stage of breastfeeding, the risks of being offered not enough milk are higher than the risks of too much milk. Christine M. Betzold NP CLC MSN *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome