this type of physician behavior tends to come in waves, usually after some article in a journal talks about hypoglycemia in infants of diabetic mothers, or after a formula rep starts talking about it when bf rates are going up... if you wish, privately email me the fp's names and I'll tell on them (there's a list structured like lactnet for fp's) colostrum has better ability to stabilize blood sugar than does dextrose water - early and often feeding keeps sugar up and gets milk going but - another issue here is intervention, both unnecessary testing and articial feeding methods. The unnecessary testing could be addressed by a chapter in Chalmers' Guide to Effective Care of the Newborn - Oxford Press - it's a text that presents detailed analyses of current literature on a number of interventions in the perinatal period. It specifically states that routine glucose testing should not be done. Ask these docs for some justification for routine testing or testing of asymptomatic and low risk babies - and talk to them about the harms of overtesting. Also, talk to doctors and nurses about using pumped colostrum or even formula via finger feed, SNS, or other non-artificial-nipple method of administering. Perhaps the hassle of hooking all that stuff up will get them to realize that the best way to keep sugar stable is to allow unlimited feeding and skin-to-skin.. good luck. And I'm serious about tattling on these docs... Julie Graves Moy, M.D., M.P.H. [log in to unmask] http://www.bga.com/~jgmoy P.O. Box 4768 512-342-1624 (new) Austin, Texas 78765 512-342-1628 fax (new)