Rachel says, > Jan Barger posts on the variation in fat content between mothers and over > time. > I can't make this fit with my study on a sample of one mother of twins, my > friend, who has so little body fat that I wondered how she even menstruated > before getting spontaneously pregnant with twins, her 3rd and 4th children. > She fed them, together, every four hours because that's when they were > hungry. Her breasts even then were barely visible with the naked eye. Her > children grew well, were sleek and round and thriving. They are > adolescents > today and have their parents' build, tall and svelte. > We never checked fat content because why would we? > But how does this fit the theory you outlined, Jan? > I have no idea. It certainly doesn't fit with what I've outlined -- but (she shrugs her shoulders) it goes to show us that we certainly can't nail down breastfeeding into a simple and sleek package, can we? The mother I had that didn't ever put her baby to breast, but pumped using a Medela manual pump for a year -- pumped 4x a day and got 16 ounces each time (nearly 2 Liters/day) -- doesn't fit with anything I know either. It doesn't square with milk volume in moms of singletons topping out at around 850 ml/24 hours (according to studies). And now that Cathy F. has graciously thrown her cat in among the pigeons, if babies ONLY grow through volume of milk consumed, (not fat, protein, energy or other constituents of breastmilk), then how can a 15 pound baby continue to grow appropriately on 850 ml/day (which is approximately 28 ounces) -- about enough according to the calculations we use of 2.5ounces/pound of body weight/day to support an 11 pound baby. She throws up her hands in despair -- what's the answer? IS there an answer that will satisfy all the questions we have. Somehow I don't think that the answer on the IBLCE exam is going to be: "Mother's Milk is Magic" Though that certainly is ONE answer! Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC -- Wheaton IL Lactation Education Consultants www.lactationeducationconsultants.com *********************************************** 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