I'm so glad that we are discussing this, as I think many babies, for
whatever reason, do best when they feed very frequently, yet most mothers
think this signifies something wrong with their milk production.

With my first baby, I kept thinking he should be nursing less often, and
trying to "stretch him out" by walking with him, rocking him, everything but
feeding him. My second wouldn't tolerate that, and she taught me that
nursing every 15 or 20 minutes is just fine. I stopped counting or timing
feedings - stopped thinking of them as feedings - and soon found that I
could do all the things I needed to do with frequent brief interruptions to
put my baby to the breast again.

I know I've often told the story of my friend whose fifth baby was born with
a serious heart defect. It was missed at birth, and at his 2 month check-up,
and not picked up until he was five months old. He had heart surgery at
seven months, to close the four holes in his heart.

My friend mothered all her children the same way - carrying them constantly
in a sling, nursing whenever they signaled her, sleeping with them beside
her. This baby, like her others, nursed briefly at least a couple of times
every hour. He gained weight well. We did think he was a little less active
than the others, but attributed it to a different personality.

When his heart problem was discovered, the doctor couldn't understand why
nobody had noticed. He asked "but doesn't he turn blue when he cries??"
Well, he never cried - except for very brief moments. Never long enough to
make him blue. They were also astonished by his good weight gain and
excellent health. In turn we were shocked when we saw the other babies with
heart problems who looked skinny and pale.

I'm happy to say that this baby did very well after his heart surgery, and
is now a happy, healthy and very energetic five-year-old. (We sometimes joke
that perhaps we shouldn't have had all four holes fixed, because he turned
out to be so lively!)

My friend is convinced that if she hadn't mothered him the way she did, he
would have been much less healthy at the time of the surgery and might not
have survived (several other babies in the ward at the time did not).

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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