One observation on the effects of small amts of colostrum on blood glucose levels: Yesterday (Monday) I visited a mom who had a vag delivery abt 1900 Sunday, was still on MgSo4 IV for PIH & still had a Foley (long labor, teen mom, pitocin, <6lb baby). Baby had never gone to breast - formula only so far. Mom said she wanted to BF but he would not wake up to root or latch. He did respond to massage with stretches & movememts of extremities, but acted like he would prefer to stay semi-asleep while we continued to massage him all over. He burped and yawned with some frequency. Pediatrician had said she wasn't going to be concerned unless baby had not latched to feed by 24 hours. Last feed Monday was 15cc formula at 0630. Glucose testing is by heel stick. Level was 76 at 0940 and 73 at 1200. That's when my visits began. Got him boosted up into comfortable 'football' hold & taught mom to massage & express colostrum. She drip-fed him colostrum for about 15 minutes at 1200, 1330, & 1500. At 1530 his glucose level was 75! Our hospital uses 40 as the intervention level: feed, or else! Then she drip fed him colostrum every 2 hrs: 1700 & 1900, after which I was gone for the day. He did poop about 3x since birth. RN said they were small & green. Mom said she was not given her baby to breastfeed in L&D. She could not tell me why. Asked nursery RN to checked baby's chart. She said it showed a feeding of 30cc formula 1 hour after birth but she did not see anything in Progress Notes to explain why no BFing in L&D. As usual, some documents showed two different choices: breast-only and "both" or B&B. Around 1600 he made some rooting & latching efforts, but each time he seemed to latch, he sucked once & slid off. I had noticed earlier that he had a prominent lingual frenulum & crease down the front end of his tongue, but I wanted to see baby latch to see if it was severe enough to affect feeding. Gramma said her son, baby's father, also had a prominent frenulum but does not recall any problems BFing him. But memory does fade somewhat after ~25 years. I suggested to mom that she discuss the frenulum issue with baby's doctor & get her assessment. Our hospital won't do any clipping in the PP period. Baby can "lick an ice cream cone", i.e. stick it out past his lips, but forming & maintaining a seal can be another issue. I documented all this for both OB & nursery RNs & left a referral for my coworker LC to followup today on latch / frenulum issues. I only hope that baby wasn't stuffed with formula during the night. I'm taking off for a few days: T -5. :-} Does anyone else feel like they're spinning their wheels in the mud? --- Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC --- Glendale, AZ, USA --- [log in to unmask] --- Scanned by Norton AntiVirus with auto-updates *********************************************** 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