Sally Myer asks how long expressed colostrum is enough for these babies before formula should be considered. This has been discussed at great length in the past but I can't remember what the subject lines have been. Check the archives and use imagination and I am sure there will be lots of food for thought. Basically, with regular expression, transitional milk will appear long before the need for formula would ever arise. Sally notes that mothers get scant amounts of colostrum by pumping. Many of us have observed this, and have observed that manual expression into a spoon or medicine cup yields more and the result is more easily fed to the baby. Or, having mother simply learn expression with baby beside her, preferably lying in bed together, and letting it just drip into baby's mouth, enables mother to rest for those first hours or days, while assuring baby's intake. It also maximizes the opportunity for baby to 'get it' and start latching on. There are also some good references in the archives to articles on hypoglycemia and the very exaggerated fear of same which now prevails in the same units which 30 years ago kept babies in a state of starvation for the first 12-24 hours, also on medical grounds. If non-latching newborns is a very common problem, one might want to look at the birth practices in the institution to find out why so many otherwise normal infant humans seem to lack one of the most basic tools for survival. Rachel Myr obstinately defending normal birth in Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** 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