Howdy,
I have been following the discussion on insufficient milk
supply and may have missed some of it, but I am surprised
that no one has considered the role of the baby. Many of the
babies I have worked with who were not getting enough milk
were at least partially responsible for the problem.  I have
not seen the Neifert article, but was any consideration
given to poor milk removal as opposed to poor production?
Many times if a baby is not removing the milk well there
will be some permanent involution and permanent inability to
produce enough milk for a growing baby. I have seen many
babies who had problems gaining that could be traced to the
use of short pacifiers.  We documented 16 babies in one six
month period (all born at the same hospital) who got a short
pacifier during the first hours after birth and  didn't pull
the breast nipple back into their mouths well during
feeding.Therefore they didn't strip the milk well.  It
looked like an epidemic of poor production until they
changed pacifiers and the problem went away.  A baby who is
getting mostly foremilk will also have inadequte intake.
Why is mother's milk producing ability always blamed?  Cathy