Instead, call a lactation consultant…duh

Oh, this is ridiculous…my my. What a horrible thing to say. That nurse was so impatient and directed it right at that poor mama.

It was a Naval hospital, he was born on a Saturday night, and the lactation consultant wouldn’t be back in until the following Monday. I did see her. After trying for about 20 minutes, she told me not all women can breastfeed.

It was a Naval hospital, he was born on a Saturday morning, and the lactation consultant wouldn’t be back in until the following Monday. I did see her. After trying for about 20 minutes, she told me not all women can breastfeed.

Durrr, tried to correct night to morning before it submitted. D’oh.

They used to not feed newborns for 24 hours after birth? And now the baby slips out and BOOM similac to the gills!

Bless your heart. What a ridiculous thing to say to a struggling new mom.

I saw a group of 4 lactation consultants, two of whom were nurses and one who was a doctor, and it took us 4 months and over 30 visits, to finally determine that my youngest was unable to successfully breastfeed. (short tongue and jaw, along with a very high palate). Odd that this nurse could determine that within one hour.

Oh… and obviously he ate during that time. We did triple feeding most meals.

http://www.drjen4kids.com/soap%20box/normal_%20newborn.htm
That chest area gives heat. The baby has been using mom’s body for temperature regulation for ages. Why would they stop? With all that blood flow, it’s going to be warm. The baby can use mom to get warm. When I was in my residency, we would put a cold baby “under the warmer” which meant a heater thingy next to mom. Now, as I have matured, if a baby is “under the warmer,” the kid is under mom. I wouldn’t like that. I like the kids on top of mom, snuggled.

Now we have a brand new baby on the warmer. That child is not hungry. Bringing a hungry baby into the world is a bad plan. And really, if they were hungry, can you please explain to me why my kids sucked the life force out of me in those last few weeks of pregnancy? They better have been getting food, or well, that would have been annoying and painful for nothing.

[...]

A newborn baby on mom’s chest will pick their head up, lick their hands, maybe nuzzle mom, lick their hands and start to slide towards the breast. The kids have a preference for contrasts between light and dark, and for circles over other shapes. Think about that…there’s a dark circle not too far away.

Mom’s sweat smells like amniotic fluid, and that smell is on the child’s hands (because there’s been no bath yet!) and the baby uses that taste on their hand to follow mom’s smell. The secretions coming from the glands on the areola (that dark circle) smell familiar too and help the baby get to the breast to get the colostrum which is going to feed the good bacteria and keep them protected from infection. The kids can attach by themselves. Watch for yourself! And if you just need colostrum to feed bacteria and not yourself, well, there doesn’t have to be much. And there isn’t because the kids aren’t hungry and because Breastmilk is not food!

finnaryn,

I’m sure you will never see this but tongue-tie tends to run in families and is easily fixable the first days after birth (midwives used to keep their pinkie nail long just for this). After a few weeks the frenulum becomes tougher and more vascular and the baby its harder to get the baby to cooperate so the repair is more difficult. Some babies also have a tight frenulum under their upper lip as well and there is no reason not to clip that if there is any suggestion its causing a problem, it disappears by adulthood.

Find a midwife, family physician, doctor, oral surgeon, etc who is familiar with tongue-tie clipping if you happen to have more kids.

Back in the ancient days — before 1975 or so – they used to withhold food from all babies for 48 hours.
Some radical hospitals fed as early as 24, but it was considered dangerous.
They believed — well, WE believed (I trained back then), that the baby’s had to “rest his stomach”. If he had anything to eat he could not digest it. It would take too much energy out of him – and besides — he would probably just vomit it up. And any baby who vomited risked aspirating it and could develop pneumonia.
The first feed had to be sterile water so “we can see if everything works” and “to clean the baby out”.
We were taught that babies could not become dehydrated for at least three days — and maybe longer – because after all “milk doesn’t come in for at least three days, and maybe five, and the breasts are empty”. So obviously babies did not need food or fluids for several days.
And the baby is too tired. He just wants to sleep. And besides, the new mom needs to rest.
Here’s how it worked to mom’s advantage though: and this is a wonderful irony.
A breastfeeding mom might get to feed and hold her baby EARLY. She could be “permitted” to “try to feed” the baby because everybody knew the breasts are empty for the first three days and Mama would just be a pacifier. The baby would not be in danger of getting anything in his stomach…

When I think of the past and the many wrong things we were SURE were true, it makes me wonder how many things we’re mistaken about these days…

Actually, in reply to the tongue tie comment, you do not have to clip them. My daughter was born with a tongue tie and nursed very well (still does). There are different degrees of tongue ties and the lesser degrees may not need to be touched at all.
We chose to wait and see what would happen and if affected her in any way we would have it clipped. We didn’t need to in her case.

I heard a similar song and dance when my son was in the NICU. They told me I was starving him because my milk hadn’t come in the first day after birth. Even though he had a perfect latch and we were breastfeeding beautifully. They were trying to make me feel guilty so that I could consent to formula so that they could feed my son without me being physically there. I didn’t bend a bit though but it did pull at my heart strings for a minute.

My husband worked for CPS for 3 years. That is just an idle threat. That kind of call wouldn’t even get past the call screeners! But then, the mom wouldn’t necessarily know that.

My daughter would not eat for 48 hours. She kept coughing up fluid. When she finally stopped coughing up fluid, she got interested in nursing. She’s a happy, healthy 3 1/2 year old today of about average height and weight.