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In a message dated 7/21/2005 9:47:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
......Then I tell them that the average full-term baby eats every 2 hours.
Dear Friends:
Is there any evidence for this thought?
I know that mothers are told that babies will breastfeed 8-12 times in
24 hours; that averages out to once every 2-3 hours. Just because 8 and 12
divide 24 neatly is no a reason to teach that this is what babies do. So many
women I work with are struggling mightily to adhere to this arbitrary
schedule; they wake
deeply sleeping babies up and then become upset when baby doesn't feed well
or
injures the mothers.
Many adults have been trained to have three meals a day; following the
same logic, that means adults should eat every 8 hours. We all know that
is
not true! Why should babies be expected to maintain a schedule? It is much
easier to keep baby close, and breastfeed on cue. Feed babies at THEIR best
time.
I wish mothers would pretend to be placentas for a while after the birth.
Evidence tells us that baby drives the milk supply; only the baby knows when
it needs the breast. We also know that newborns can snack in clusters,
another common pattern.
Babies go to breast for food, for drink, for love, for comfort, for pain
relief, and probably for a bunch of other reasons. Giving mothers some
schedule while they are learning to breastfeed has never, in my clinical
experience, be useful............unless the baby is preterm and isn't giving feeding
cues yet.
De Carvalho and others have arrived at a figure of 140-160 minutes in 24
hours that a baby breastfeeds; those minutes are best arranged by the baby.
warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
www.breastfeedingalwaysbest.com
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