On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:23:46 -0400, Jennifer Tow wrote: Yes, there is one subscriber among us who feels that it is physiologically abnormal for any human being, including an infant, not to have regular bowel movements (this would mean--for all humans, one bm per meal per day--for an infant that is many!). That would, of course be me who is adamant on this topic. Heather makes the argument that since there is a consensus among the rest of you that it is fine for babies to have guts that do not function, then it must be so. Well, there is a consensus in the West among docs that AIM is just as good as human milk and a few docs who disagree. Perhaps the consensus among the majority makes them correct? There are many similar issues when it comes to infants--there used to be a consensus that all babies needed fluoride and now that they all need vit D. These beliefs often turn out to be ill-informed and seriously harmful. Perhaps we should at least let mothers know that there is disagreement on this topic. Perhaps what we are seeing is a reflection of the very poor gut health of so many mothers causing disbyosis in their babies and maybe even beginning with cellular migration from the gut of the mother during gestation. Maybe this is the reason we see less differentiation between AF and breastfed babies when it comes to IQ--after all brain health begins with gut health and the enteric nervous system is literally located in the gut. Jennifer, I also think that we need to pay attention to gut motility as it is caused by peristalsis. Many babies do not have regular BMs because they are not sucking correctly and the peristalsis does not get started properly in the tongue; therefore, it cannot travel through the GI tract. I have worked with several babies who were having BMs every 5-10 days; after suck retraining, they would have 3 or more BMs in as many hours of a consultation. The mother would continue the suck exercises and the lack of BMs would change to several in one day. Do I have research to back this up? No. I only have 32 years of seeing it happen. This could be an item for research that would help our profession and that of pediatrics, not to mention the babies and moms who would be relieved (in more ways than one). :-) Lee Galasso, MS, IBCLC, RLC Lactation Specialist Lactation Center of Westchester/Putnam Westchester County in NYS *********************************************** 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 email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html