Your baby's stomach is NOT the size of a pea! Or a walnut....
10 March 2009
I am absolutely appalled by the misleading information that is being given out to new mothers in relation to feeding/ size of their baby's stomach.
In many ante-natal classes, mothers are told that their baby's stomach is very small (the size of a walnut), which is why a baby needs to feed very frequently - up to 20 times a day. This is complete nonsense - I have measured a walnut and I can reveal that it holds 20 mls of milk. On Day 1, a bottle fed baby can easily drink 30mls (or more) and by Day 3, most will drink up to 90mls per feed. How could they do this if their stomach is so small? Answer - a baby's stomach may look the size of a walnut but the big difference is that a stomach expands when it is filled with milk, whereas a walnut does not.
I once visited a mother who was bottle feeding her baby with her own expressed milk (because she couldn't get him to latch on) and both she and her husband were genuinely worried that they were going to rupture their baby's stomach because he was drinking 120mls at each feed. They had been told by their ante-natal teacher that their baby's stomach was the size of a walnut and had subsequently worked out for themselves that a walnut couldn't possibly hold this much.
But things have got worse.....Now I hear that mothers are being told that their baby's stomach is the size of a PEA! When a client (and her husband) told me that their ante-natal teacher had held up a pea in their ante-natal class to demonstrate this fact, I found it hard to believe that they were not exagerating. But, to my amazement I recently saw for myself a midwife demonstrating the same thing to a group of mothers.
Researching on the internet, I see a lactation consultant states that a newborn baby's stomach can only hold 7-9mls milk on the first day, and that he will be physically sick if he is given more than this. Who taught her this?
Yesterday I spoke to one of London's top Consultant paediatricians, who confirmed that this is simply not true and that it is normal for a baby to need approx. 30mls of milk per feed on Day One. Gray's Anatomy (the bible of anatomy & physiology) also states that a newborn stomach has a 30cc (cubic capacity),which then expands when filled with milk.
I cannot understand how any Health professional can have so little knowledge of anatomy and physiology that they really do think a pea represents the size of a stomach. Aweful that they think that...still worse if they teach it to vulnerable new mothers.
So, to all you new mothers....In the first few days, a breastfed baby usually only needs small amounts of colostrum (because it is so much richer than formula milk) but do not be misled into thinking that a baby cannot and should not drink more than a few mls at each feed. If your baby has dry nappies and has lost more than 10% of his birth weight, he is clearly not getting enough colostrum and can (and should) be given some extra milk from a bottle.