Dear Betsy, Unfortunately, I don't think there is any documentation on "thr
rule of thumb" - one wet per day of age in first few days with more poop -
several or more, the number of wet and poopy reverses as mom's milk comes
in. (More wet, less poopy).
It has come about from lots of observation by lots of BF observers.  (who
do you think has been saying 6-8 wet diapers after first week for about 40
years?)

Common sense says that the volume of colostrum (which is perfect) and the
laxative effect of colostrum(on the bowel) to move the meconium out would
give more poops than pees, that slowly reverses to more pee(6-8) and 3-4
poops.  This has been discussed a lot on Lactnet.  The average hospital
birth is not "normal".  You'd have to look at home births or other cultures
to see what is normal elimination pattern when baby is fed ad lib.

The whole thing has become skewed by what we have come to expect of baby
elimination in bottle fed babies who in effect are being force fed large
(for a baby) volumes of fluids.  Please remember that my daughter (who was
40 the other day - poor dear or poor me :-) was not fed anything for 24
hours in 1959.  This was "normal" in 1959. Sincerely, Pat in SNJ

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