While I appreciate that babies don't take in increasing amounts of 
breastmilk over months and months, I do find it very useful to give 
guidelines for parents when babies are having *ineffective* feeds. I do use 
the calculation 2.5 ounces x wt in pounds for a 24 hour amount of milk for 
baby to take in. This is the minimum and I tell parents baby may take more. 
I use the birthweight and not the low weight of the baby. I have been very 
successful in seeing a quick turnaround (I believe in every case so far) 
when babies get in this amount when before they have not been getting enough 
(either not enough milk or not transferring what is there).
I have had several cases where the baby was taking in very little milk and 
they were discharged from hospital with no instruction on how much to 
supplement (ebm or formula) and on the need for early f/u. Especially 
primips need guidance on what amounts to feed the baby. Rule no. 1 is feed 
the baby and you do have to spell it out exactly most of the time. Generally 
you will be doing these calculations on newborns or fairly young babies. 
However, if presented with an older infant with no/low weight gain, I would 
use the same calculations to begin with.

Laurie Wheeler, IBCLC, MN, RN
New Orleans Louisiana, s.e. USA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html