Dear all:

I had a really long day yesterday.  My last case lasted four and a half hours because I 
had to do the bite my tongue and let the parents discover it for themselves approach.  I 
was confronted at the door with "our pediatrician said our baby is just fine and we don't 
want to do any interventions --- we want to keep it natural".  Mom had a scheduled C-
section for medical reasons and the five day old baby had just STARTED eating 5 x/day.  
They did not want to wake the baby.  They saw my dear friend, the pediatrician to the 
stars whom they thought walked on water because he professes to be for breastfeeding 
(the last case I had with him was shocked when he told her to stop pumping and start 
giving formula --- she is happily exclusively breastfeeding now because she didn't listen 
to him) and for sleep.  I didn't even ask about this because he has an extreme form of 
sleep training where 3 month olds are supposed to sleep 12 hours a night.

So,,,, of course by every parameter including my intuitive observation, this baby was off.  
The baby was a pound below birth weight --- > 10%, yellow, loose skin, and so called 
soozing all day.  But during that four and a half hour marathon of not insisting but showng 
the parents what was going on.  It took 3 hours for the baby to get an ounce, but really 
this baby was good,  She really did swallow the whole time and had decent stamina --- 
just mom hadn't drained her breasts frequently in the last 5 days.  Mom was able to 
release well to the pump and did get a little extra out.  Dad was THE BEST PACED feeder 
I have ever seen with both syringe and bottle.  He used the syringe to calm the baby onto 
the breast.

After the three hours and the pumped milk the baby was still hungry they did get it.  
Because they were so concerned about formula (and I had to let them know about the 
Cornucopia report on the powdered so-called organic formula they had) --- I actually did 
send them to the donor milk bank.  

I worked with them on cues for when to wake their baby instead of the every x hours that 
their pediatrician to the stars was against.  And, during this conversation it became clear 
that they were swaddling their baby to sleep when she was still hungry. Here's the rub --- 
after all that they asked about the pacifier.

We as humans are so inconsistent sometimes.  Anyway, I explained to my son why I was 
late picking him up because I saw a baby that was feeding 4-5 times per day.  He said, 
"That's crazy, a baby has to eat more often than that --- they need to eat three times as 
many times as an adult --- about 9 times a day". 

Best, Susan

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