Those of you who know me, know that I can't sit on my hands very long
(actually through 2 posts (blush, one of which I inadvertently sent last
night to Lactnet -- ACK).

Here is a thought that has been lurking in my gray matter.....

When a baby gets milk from his or her own mother, that milk is a perfect
match, genetically, for 50% of that baby's cells.  Right?  So when we talk
about a baby being more efficient at digesting  human milk, could it be that
it is almost like "eating oneself"?  All other milks would have genetic
differences which would mean that the baby would have to do a lot more
recombining to get from cow to human, for instance.  Perhaps (this is all in
my head, mind you -- wouldn't it be lovely to have the research), as babies
mature and their digestive systems become more efficient, less of the milk is
wasted so that there is less stool and the calorie needs "go down" since more
is used.

Hope this makes some sense.

Martha Brower (its good to be back on Lactnet....  and still reeling from the
front page news in Dayton, Ohio about proposed legislation in Ohio to allow
doctors to determine when the mother and baby should be discharged, rather
than insurance companies.  The article is about a baby who developed cerebral
palsy -- attributed to jaundice-- and the article goes on to say that human
milk doesn't come in for 2 days and dehydration can be caused when mothers
think babies take in nourishment and they don't -- implication is that
breastfeeding babies don't get anything for at least 2 days.   ACK, ACK,
ACK.)