That all sounds wonderful, and it's great to hear, Ilene.

>
>
>I will go on record however in saying that a healthy full term baby 
>needs to be gaining wt and
>not just maintaining. No science, no evidence...just gut.


Don't get me wrong - I AGREE (yelling, a bit :) ) .

The science and the evidence is there, too, of course.

Where I and others differ is that I believe that interventions 
(expressing, supplementing, frequent weighing, even overt worrisome 
concern and close peering and generally fiddling about, even TT 
snipping) too soon, too heavy-handed, to 'make' the baby gain weight 
as he should are risky. Just like any other interventions, all these 
have their place and can be 100 per cent appropriate.

But they are interventions and should never be offered lightly, 
because confidence is a fragile flower that flourishes best without 
too much handling. Lack of confidence is a major reason (maybe the 
major reason for 21st century Western women) for giving up 
breastfeeding.  I particularly underline *over*-frequent weighing 
here - it's a little 'test' with all the exam stress that comes with 
it. And scales and humans are often not error-free :(

Sometimes, doing the right 'normal' things (skin to skin, ad lib 
feeding, hands-off-style checking latch and attachment, relaxed 
monitoring of eliminations) is what turns things around, and I like 
to see mothers and babies being given the chance for the right normal 
things to work, whenever possible.

The anxiety you describe in this baby was no doubt as you judged - a 
need for more milk. You were there, you could see! There are other 
reasons for this behaviour, which are other needs and which are also 
(happily) satisfied by a close and responsive breastfeeding 
relationship.  And this relationship has to be given time, space, 
support and love in order to flourish along with the confidence.

But I do absolutely agree babies need to grow from the start!!

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor
-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

http://heatherwelford.posterous.com

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