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Date: | Mon, 6 Jan 1997 21:16:10 -0800 |
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What women may be noticing is a CHANGE in milk production. Most of the
researchers who have followed babies (and their mothers, of course) over
time and have plotted milk output have noted that infant intake declines at
about 4 months in breastfeeding babies. Bottle-feeders continue to
increase, given a chance. See Dewey, et al's work and that of Daly and
Hartmann and their crew.
My understanding from their work is that infant needs DECLINE at this
point. Breastfeeding babies continue to grow optimally while taking in
less milk because that milk more closely meets their nutritional needs than
is the case for artificially-fed children. Remember that human milk,
unlike the fake stuff, changes over time.
If a mother is expressing milk and her baby has recently begun taking less,
it makes sense to me that she might note what she thinks is a LOSS of
production, when it is simply a downward slope in volume which still is
sufficient to meet her baby's REDUCED needs. If the baby does this by
reducing frequency of feeds, a mother might notice this. If she is pumping
and is getting less, this lesser amount mirrors what the baby has asked
that her body make, not that her body is failing her.
I think we need to be careful about how we approach the subject of REDUCED
MILK PRODUCTION at a time when normally healthy thriving breastfeeding
babies are simply shifting into a slightly lower gear of demand, thus
cueing the body (so smart) to produce what is asked for and not much more.
Others who have read these studies, please correct me if my simplistic
summary is incorrect.
"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.com/~kga/lactation.html
LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html
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