With regard to feeding, breastfed infants should receive between 8-12 feeds per day during the newborn hospitalization.1 Bottlefed infants should be fed 20 kcal per 30 mL of iron-containing formula. Infants are fed on demand, and the duration of the feeding should not exceed 4 hours. The volume of the feed for the first few days of life should be 15-30 mL per feed.
For breastfed infants, clinicians should be attentive to issues that can impact nutrition, including latching difficulties, pain, mastitis, blocked duct, and engorgement. These can limit nutrition and be extremely upsetting to the mother.
Stooling frequency for newborns varies and depends on whether the infant is bottle fed or breast fed. During the first week of life, infants pass a mean of 4 stools per day.2 Breastfed infants may have as few as one stool per day, increasing as mother’s milk production increases.2
With regard to weight loss, term infants may lose up to 10% of their birth weight in the first few days of life, which is typically regained in 10 to 14 days.1 Infants born via cesarean section lose more weight, with 25% of these babies losing more than 10% by 72 hours. Of them, 76% return to birth weight by 14 days and 92% by 21 days. By contrast, vaginally born infants regain weight faster, with 86% returning to their birth weight by 14 days and 95% by the 21st day.1
Here, the infant was term and healthy, but we are not told some important details. Was she breast fed or bottle fed? Was she born by cesarean section or vaginally? We do know she was discharged on August 24th, her mother called the hotline on the 25th, and she was seen by the pediatrician on the 26th—at which point the infant had not stooled in 3 days. The mother called the physician’s office again on August 29th and was sent to the ED. We are told only that each feeding lasted an hour and the infant hadn’t stooled.
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