Carrie writes;
>>I guess I shouldn't have left out the baby was a sleepy baby, and upon
returning from the ped and calling it was found that baby was
sleeping/nursing 3-5 hours at a stretch since birth.  Everytime the baby
nursed, though (prior to introducing bottle), there were all of the signs of
milk transfer (bm's, wet diaper, good suck/swallow) and the baby's latch was
fine.  From everything she said, it indicated that all she really needed to
do was sit down and do nothing but wake baby to nurse much more frequently.
>
The notion that this baby was nursing fine since birth, just not frequently
enough, doesn't jibe with one who has lost this much wt. at 1 wk. There are
many babies who nurse only every 3-5 hrs and gain lots of weight, if feeding
effectively. My guess would be that there was definitely an issue with fdng
effectiveness and Mom's history of such, offered to you as above, reveals
little other than the limits of relying on these subjective measures of fdng
effectiveness. You may be right to assume that increased frequency might have
allowed them to avoid this issue altogether as the increased
practice/nutrition may have helped them both to evolve the latch into
something more effective.

>>Perhaps I'm way off base, but I do feel it
harmful to dictate supplemental feeds (let alone the other instructions
about nursing the ped gave) simply with one weigh in and no other
indications of dehydration.  Am I way off base in my thinking?????<<

IF there were no other signs of dehydration then, No, I don't think that you
are off base at all.
As I mentioned in my last post, even if there were other signs of
dehydration/malnourishment, I still don't believe that supplementation was
necessarilly indicated.  First, attempt to fix the breastfeeding!
I notice in the subject heading that you referred again to "inflated birth
weights".  Unless there are other indicators that you didn't mention, the use
of IV fluids during labor and larger wt. loss don't in and of themselves
point to an inaccurate, fluid inflated birth weight. Many, many women
(epidurals!) receive lots of IV fluids in labor.
Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc
Franklin,Massachusetts

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