>I do not believe it is in any way healthy or normal to lose weight 
>in the first days or week of life. Homebirth babies rarely lose any 
>weight at all. Since uninterrupted birth is the biological norm and 
>homebirth is the closet to that, I would venture to say that  what 
>we observe in homebirths is normal and any behavior seen in a 
>hospital setting is suspect.

This has been my experience -- my homebirthed babies lost little or 
no weight after birth.  My milk came in at the normal time, 2-3 days 
after the births, but they were at or already back to birthweight by 
then (on 'just' colostrum apparently).  No meds, zero separation, 
essentially continuous skin-to-skin.

>
>Further, I am not convinced that all those roly-poly breastfed 
>babeis who grow so rapidly are healthy. Many of those babies are 
>growing on a very high-lactose load, caused by poor latch and hence 
>oversupply. I have posed this question before--shouldn't we be 
>concerned that such growth is a risk factor for obesity and diabetes?
>Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA

I remember you raising this question before, Jennifer.  I puzzled 
over it then and now.  I can't quite get my mind around the idea that 
breastfed babies could so often be plump in an unhealthy way.  Those 
roly-poly breastfed infants nearly all become much leaner in the 
second half of the first year as they learn to crawl and walk.

I think of that old research that showed artificially-fed babies 
having twice as many fat cells at one year of age compared to 
breastfed babies.  Seems to me the baby's body must have a system for 
managing fat that works better in breastfed babies.

I also think of the research on starting solids that showed how 
effectively babies regulate their caloric intake.  (Baby on lap, 
can't reach my books right now, but I know it is cited in the BAB.) 
The gist was that babies who were fed solids in an effort to get more 
food into them decreased their breastmilk intake so their total 
calories were the same as before.  This same effect was also shown 
with mothers who pumped to increase their milk supply so their babies 
would gain faster -- after the intervention, the babies soon 
downregulated mom's supply to where it had been before.

So it appears to me that regardless of oversupply, latch issues, etc, 
babies mostly know how to get what they need with breastfeeding.  And 
if many optimally-birthed and -breastfed babies are round and plump 
in the first months then there must be something to it.

Warmly,
Margaret
Longmont, CO

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