I appeal for some help - I have just heard that the neonatal staff in one of our local hospitals are recommending a "bottle or two" of formula for babies who show first signs of jaundice.
Gasp!!
I have always understood that one of the values of colostrum, among many others, is that it helps the baby pass his meconium and since the meconium contains bilirubin among other residues in his digestive system, breastfeeding at the earliest after the birth would actually prevent jaundice or reduce the bilirubin if it starts to rise.
This theory was reinforced when I lived in the UK in an area where there were a lot of home births (great GP and well-organized domiciliary midwife team)
There seemed to be far fewer cases of neonatal jaundice when babies are born at home and my hypotheses was that in home births there is no separation from the baby, no nursery, no interference with skin-to-skin and early breastfeeding.

What I need now is to discuss this "formula for bilirubin" treatment with the staff, but first I need some really updated references.  
Can any of you help me?

Wendy Blumfield
NCT Tutor ANT/BFC
Israel Childbirth Education Centre

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

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 email list is powered by LISTSERV (R).
There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html