Alia posts on a 2 week old baby who is gaining weight but has not stooled
for over a week.  It seems the baby's lowest recorded weight was on day
five, when baby was more than 10 per cent below birth weight.  If the baby's
weight on each day before and after day five is known, then baby has gained
one ounce each day for a week.  This fits with an adequate but not abundant
supply, as does the late date for lowest weight.  If things are going
completely normally, I expect a baby to be back to birth weight by day five,
and I want there to be an obvious reason if that isn't the case.

If there have been days without weight checks, then it is possible that the
lowest weight was before day five and was even lower, or that it was still
going down on day five and has since bottomed out and started to rise, which
would mean baby is gaining more rapidly than an ounce a day.  All this is
speculation on my part, in the event that there are days before and/or after
day five when weight was not known.

This baby sounds like it is getting enough food now, and of the possible
explanations for the lack of stooling, only two are likely.  (Mother's fluid
intake is really not of interest unless it is so extremely *high* as to
suppress the MER.)  I'd expect the baby to start stooling daily once s/he is
close to birthweight, and I would make every effort to get mother to cease
and desist with the prune juice and the rectal stimulation.  This baby needs
breastmilk, not laxative beverages or invasions of its body cavities.  As
long as baby is feeding well, gaining weight, and peeing, and has been
examined by someone qualified to rule out rare bowel conditions, she can
just relax and wait, and continue to monitor weight gain with the guidance
of her LC or her doc or both.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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

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