Pam and all,
I may not have been clear enough in what I was searching out. When I am
wondering about those low growth babies, formula or breastfed, I am not
thinking of the failure to thrive infant with organic or psychological
(neglect/abuse) issues. I'm pondering the concept of babies who were
programmed to grow slowly as a variation of normal. My musings are to how
often low growth rate is actually a norm for the child and not related to
any pathologic factors, be it lack of milk, infant depression, fear of pain,
avoidance of feeding discomfort, etc. I'm wondering how often we might
attribute low growth to being genetically programmed when in actuality there
was an underlying cause that was never picked up. What might the true
percentage be of babies who by nature were meant to grow slowly?

One of my clients had hypoplasia and struggling milk supply that with two
babies was brought to about 95% of baby's needs each time. Her babies nursed
often, she took galactogogues, and it was a lot of work to maintain. In the
early months supplemental milk was used and needed to maintain growth. I
followed these girls both for months because their growth rates never
stabilized and sometimes dropped to 2 or 3oz for a week. They eventually
rejected their bottles of supplement even though their growth rate was quite
borderline. I always felt that if mom's supply was 100% they would have
grown a bit faster and more consistently; it seemed that the girls just
didn't like bottles/formula compared to mom and were willing to go without
even though they could have used it. 

How often does an apparently happy and content baby limit their intake and
grow slowly?  Or does low self-regulation more often occur with a risk
factor?

~Lisa

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html