I have heard other explanations for the 5% of women who don't have enough
milk..., a pediatrician who has seen many slow weight gain breastfed babies
said he believes about 5% of slow weight gain is due to insufficient
glandular tissue. This is close to my personal experience. I have counseling
records (LLL Leader) of over 300 slow weight babies- at or below birth
weight between 2 and 8 weeks (in 13 years). 5% of 300 would be 15, I think I
have worked with 7 or 8 women who truly had insufficient glandular tissue.
Many of these babies were sucking wrong due to pacifier use (in my opinion).
If 1/2 were truly slow weight gain due to a normal growth distribution, 7 or
8 would be just about right. The 5% figure is not logical based on a normal
weight distribution.  If 2.5% of babies were below 2 standard deviations
(and 2.5% above) and all of those babies were not gaining due to
insufficient glandular tissue- the most it could be would is 2.5%, we KNOW
there are other contributing factors. Among them are perception of
inadequate milk, mismanagement of breastfeeding, infant and maternal factors
which can contribute to inadequate production, intake or utilization.  If we
go back a few years and look at newborn protocols, we see a common pattern
that often led to inadeqaute supply. Baby is born, goes to nursery for 24
hour observation- bottlefed while in there, mother receives drugs and no
breast stimulation. On second day, baby is brought to mom for 3 minutes of
nursing on each side every four hours during the day and then supplemented
with bottle. At night, baby is fed in the nursery, a total of 30 minutes of
stimulation in the first 48 hours. On third day baby is allowed 5 minutes on
each side, baby has difficulty latching on, flow is slow, baby prefers
bottle and voila, mom does not make enough milk and is consoled for being
one of the rare women who don't have enough breast tissue to make milk and
therefore should bottle feed. Did 5% of women experience insufficient
milk???? I would be willing to bet at least 5% if not 75% of women had this
type of disappointing breastfeeding experience 20-40 years ago.  Cathy
Liles- Texas