Dear all, Firstly, Ginni -- thank you! What a sweet note.... Several weeks ago I wrote y'all about one of my moms that had been in a fire that gutted her house. Her preterm infant, Alex, was burned and was in the burn unit of one of our university hospitals. Well, LeeAnn stopped by yesterday with Alex -- he is doing wonderfully, and is up to over 8 pounds; adjusted age now three weeks old. LeeAnn had an interesting story to tell about the burn unit -- apparently, they had never had a breastfed baby there, and didn't know quite what to do with Alex, especially since he wouldn't take a bottle. LeeAnn breastfed him virtually exclusively as she stayed at the hospital around the clock -- wore a beeper so all the nurses had to do was dial the number, put in 123# and she would know it was time to run up to the unit to feed Alex if she happened to be in the lounge or in the cafeteria. The docs, who certainly weren't used to bf moms, would apologize every time they came into the room when LeeAnn was bf until she finally put a big note on the front of the chart -- "PLease stop apologizing to mom when she is bf!" At one point, the dietician and nurses told her she would have to supplement Alex's feedings with Similac 24 cal. "Why?" "Because there isn't enough calories in bm." "Oh," says LeeAnn, "How do you know?" "Because bm has only 18 to 20 calories per ounce." "What are those figures based on?" "Well, those are researched & statistically based figures, so he needs formula." LeeAnn is not easily daunted. "But that doesn't take into account the differences between mothers, the age of the babies, or the change in milk based on the age of the babies." "But those are researched & statistically based figures, so he needs formula..." "Can you test caloric value of foods here?" "Umm, yes, in the lab." "So, test my milk." "It will cost a lot." "So put it on my bill -- it's high enough anyway!" The upshot of the whole thing was that LeeAnn had her milk tested three different times. She would pump about three ounces, and they would run their tests on it. The first time it came back at 29 calories per ounce. The second time at 27 calories per ounce, and the third time, when she was really stressed out, it came in at 30 calories per ounce. There was no more argument from the staff about the quality of LeeAnn's milk! I don't know what this means for the population in general, but I'd like to think that many mothers have milk that exceeds the "usual" assumptions of 20 cal/ounce. Truly Alex wouldn't have to drink all that much to pork out. As it is LeeAnn also has a lot of milk, and she and I had to work on bringing supply down with Dennis, baby number 2 (also preterm; also never had a bottle). This was the fastest confirmation one could EVER have of a statement that I made yesterday about the milk of a mom of a four month old being higher in calories than of a newborn. Yikes! Jan Barger -- still nippy in Wheaton, IL