i think there are several factors at play re slower lowering of bilirubin in breastfed babies. in the hospital where i work now the breast babies are fed 4 hourly with water in between. (argh) so i think the milk intake is very low. compared to the formula fed infant who is probably taking in more per feeding. it would be nice to have the baby room in and bf on cue and have the bili blanket used instead of mother/baby separation w/ baby in nursery. also breast babies often don't go to breast for maybe 8 or 12 hrs (common) and get a glucose water feed or two first. (another argh). i very often see the jaundice appearing the first day, even in the absence of pathology. i attribute it to delayed bf and widely spaced feeds, contributed to by routine mother/baby separation. oh to be in a baby friendly place! also you have the factor of formula babies having 'abnormally lower' levels of bili ala dr. newman's take on it, as i understand. bf is the norm. it is normal for bili levels to be elevated to some extent and for jaundice to be present even for months. Laurie Wheeler, IBCLC, MN, RN New Orleans Louisiana, s.e. USA _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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