Martha,
I don't like to see babies wait even 24 hours for food.  I ask mothers
to hand express colostrum onto a teaspoon every hour or two and feed
that to the baby if baby has not latched in 6 hours, then try latching
again.  This: starts stimulating the milk supply (Barbara Wilson Clay
shared some research that significant calibration of milk supply starts
earlier than we thought- by day 2), keeps the baby energetic enough to
work for feeds, shows mom that the baby "likes her milk".  Once there is
a color change, I recommend moms start pumping.

If we wait to do anything until 24-48 hours of age, baby has greater
chance of crashing, and many mothers have a hard time pumping colostrum
then after no stimulation in the hospital.  Then we'd need to use
formula, as most of our hospitals don't have donor milk available.

I see the results of waiting too long to feed babies.  The babies who
did not get fed in the hospital tend to be in lousy shape when I see
them on day 2 or 3 in private practice.

--
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC  New York City  mailto:[log in to unmask]

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