Lynn You said this in re Carrie's case of wt loss in a baby: "The notion that this baby was nursing fine since birth, just not frequently enough, doesn't jibe with one who has lost this much wt. at 1 wk. There are many babies who nurse only every 3-5 hrs and gain lots of weight, if feeding effectively. My guess would be that there was definitely an issue with fdng effectiveness." Well, I think the 2 go hand in hand, that is feeding infrequently and feeding ineffectively, but not necessarily so. I pointed this out to a client in a consult once. The baby did a good milk transfer, don't remember the numbers, but the feedings were too infrequent. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that we have a (small) baby that needs about 16 oz of breastmilk per 24 hrs, which is 2 oz every 3 hrs [2x8fdgs=16]. If the baby is taking the 2 oz, but only every 4 hrs, this would be only 12oz [2x6fdgs=12oz]. This is an intake of only 75% of the necessary intake, so the baby is getting shortchanged 25% of his intake. This can have a substantial impact on wt. gain. I think some babies do gain on every 3-5 hr feedings, but I think they are few and far between (rare) and not seen in the newborn period. IMHO. Good discussion going here. Laurie Wheeler, IBCLC, MN, RN Violet Louisiana, s.e. USA _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html