study showed 4mth can get 240mls in 3 mins from one breast!!?

[Lilli]

Hi,

At mother's group we were discussing short b/feeds and many mums were concerned their babies weren't getting enough milk as their babies were on the breast anywhere from 2-5 mins at a each feed. The early childhood nurse said a study had been done by ultrasound that showed a 4 month old was able to get 240mls from ONE breast in about 3 minutes!!! This sounds amazing! Has anyone heard about this study? Can it be true?

[YoYo]

I haven't heard of the study but I hope it's true! My DD only feeds for 10 mins 1 boob, so I'd be happy to know that that is enough!

[Nai]

I think the other way they do it is to weigh the baby immediately pre-feed and then straight after the feed and the weight chenge (provided there has been no output from the baby) is the amount they have consumed?

[Taurean]

It could definitely be possible, especially if the baby only fed from one breast at a time. My DD had weight gain issues in the early days so my lactation consultant weighed her (naked) before and after each breast to see how much she was getting. It's a pretty reliable way of finding out as the total weigh gain pretty much equates to the amout of breastmilk in mls - pretty cool hey You need to place a time limit on each breast though and you need the proper baby scales to do it. Back in those early days, my poor DD (who was a terrible sucker) was only getting 30mls a side - poor bubba! Any wonder my little girl wolfed down her top ups of EBM!!

[*Ash*]

WOW! That is amazing if it is true.

Wouldn't surprise me though - there are so many wonderful things about BF. And I am sure that there are many more amazing aspects that haven't even been discovered yet!

[MummaSue]

That is amazing and I do hope that it's true. My little one is a power feeder, 5 minutes maximum these days - gone are the days when we used to spend 5 hours on the couch feeding!!

Sue xx

[MantaRay]

I think know which study it is referring to but I don't know the exact amounts. It certainly could be possible. Many babies feed very quickly after the first weeks, and some reduce the number of feeds as well. Yet a study (the same one maybe) used ultrasound to show that babies actually drink about the same amount daily from 1 month to 6 months. So in many cases for babies to still be drinking 750ml or more a day after 8 - 12 weeks, they must be getting a lot in a short time.

Certainly from my experience, DS1 never fed for longer than 5 minutes even as a newborn. Yet he put on tonnes of weight - 400g a week at first. So he must have been getting a lot in less than 5 minutes!