Libby Berkeley asks for input about a baby who is 12 days old, has been
slightly jaundiced but not in need of treatment, and is nursing about 10
minutes every 2 hours, then falling asleep.  Mother is tandem nursing him
with a toddler.

The mother is already doing everything she should be doing in terms of
maintaining production and seeing to it that baby gets fed.  His stools
sound reassuring to me.  The only thing I would want to know before I would
stop being concerned is the baby's current weight.  He is still within
bounds for not having regained birthweight, if this should prove to be the
case.  I would consider the jaundice to be a yellow herring - he hasn't had
such high bilirubin levels that I would expect them to affect his level of
alertness and it should be disappearing now.  If the pediatrician isn't
worried about the jaundice, having seen the baby, then I probably wouldn't
be either.

In my experience mothers who tandem nurse have plenty of milk, and the baby
doesn't need to spend the amounts of time at breast that a first baby does,
to get supply established because it is already there.  My hunch: simple
case of contented baby.  I bet he is back to birthweight and wondering how
he got so lucky.  Please let us know when you find out!

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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