Well, I don't know about nutramigen.  All I know is that it's expensive
as all get out and smells and tastes like something I wouldn't give to
my cat (if I had a cat).  It may cause fewer allergies, but what do we
do to the milk to make it hypoallergenic.  A few years ago (about 1979)
one company decided to bring milk sodium down to breastmilk levels.  In
doing so, they brought the chloride down so low that many babies
developed hypochloremic alkalosis.  Many were severely damaged.  All
that was involved was decreasing the sodium.  What has been done to milk
to make it Nutramigen and what bad effects might occur?

There is obviously no right answer to every situation.

Sometimes mothers can express colostrum by hand much better than they
can pump with a pump.

I would say there is no problem with sugar water for the first 48 hours.
I have just been following a mother who used sugar water with a
lactation aid in a baby who *was* latching until day four (home for
three of those days).  The baby was fine.  But this does involve close
followup.  The baby was seen on day 2, day 4 and day 5, when he was
switched to formula.

The trouble with rushing in with the formula is that we are giving a
very strong message--this stuff is good for your baby and what your baby
needs.  Few would take the message that sugar water is what your baby
needs--the message they get, I think, is that this is just a help, a
crutch for the moment until things get better.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC