Marsha says,

> It really doesn't make a lot of sense to
> me that a mother's milk supply remains the same after the first few weeks.
> It seems to me that babies would have to routinely nurse more often, as
> opposed to just for a few days, when they experience what we fondly refer
> to as growth spurts.  (Those aren't out of vogue now, too, are they?)
Some
> of
> the new things coming out just make sense to me.  However, some don't and
> this one doesn't, unless someone has a reasonable explanation or possibly
> I've misunderstood.
>
>
Ahhh -- but the caloric content of mother's milk changes to meet the needs
of
the infant.  Susan Carlson who spoke at an ILCA conference in '92 discussed
the fact that while the "average" caloric content of human milk in the first
few weeks was about 20 kcal/oz, it is 26 kcal/oz at about 4 months.  Also,
babies' energy needs decrease as they get older, and they aren't growing as
quickly.  There is a newer article out (can't quote chapter and verse right
now) but it discusses the fact that a thin woman will produce a larger
volume
of milk with a lower fat content than a heavier woman who produces less milk
but with a higher fat content.  Now, if we are doing pre/post weights --
what
happens?  We get all excited when the thin woman's baby takes in -- oh, say,
4.5 ounces, but wonder askance at the heavy woman's baby who only takes in 3
ounces.  Which is one of the reasons that ac/pc weights don't tell us
everything.  And if it is a thin woman with a small breast capacity who is
trying to breastfeed on a schedule a la Ezzo -- then you end up with a baby
who is not gaining well -- where as her Reubenesque friend who has a large
storage capacity with higher fat milk does a lovely job nursing her baby
every three to 3.5 hours, and wonders why there's a problem doing that.

Lots of really really neat stuff -- a lot of which we don't know yet.


Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC -- Wheaton IL
Lactation Education Consultants
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

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