Dear Friends:

Thank you Carol l'Esperance for your wonderful posts.

The question is how long can a newborn go in the first 24 hours without
feeding?

From history, the answer is 24 hours. Babies were kept NPO (nothing by
mouth) for 24 hours over 30 years ago, to rest their stomachs.

I've given 2 citations supporting that healthy, term infants can go for at
least 6 hours after birth without feeding. The physiology of their blood
sugar is that it drops during the first 2 hours after birth, then rises. Of
course, as at least 25% babies in the US are premature (the result of
induction) I wonder what their blood sugars are doing......in any case, if
there is a concern, the baby should stay skin to skin.

Archives of Disease in Childhood Fetal and Neonatal Edition
2002;87:F46-F48          Diwakar & Sasidhar

PEDIATRICS Vol. 105 No. 5 May 2000, pp. 1141-1145*
          *Cornblath, Hawdon, Williams et al.

warmly,

Nikki Lee RN, BSN, Mother of 2, MS, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI
craniosacral therapy practitioner
www.breastfeedingalwaysbest.com

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