Ruby Foie Gras

Now that Ruby is a healthy 3 months old, we can look back and reflect on the first few weeks.... The pediatrician worried from Day 5 about Ruby's weight gain, which was a little slow at first but then picked up to about half an ounce a day--a rate commensurate with La Leche League and American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, but Not Enough according to our rather alarmist doctors. Plural: I argued with the first doctor, whereupon she heard a dangerously high heartbeat and sent us by ambulance to the pediatric intensive care unit for a night, to monitor the baby, who turned out to be fine. Perhaps she was a little worked up by the tense environment?? So the next doctor came on the scene.... and recommended supplementing breastfeeding by 2-2 1/2 ounces per feeding. Well that meant feeding her approximately Twice As Much as normal per feeding. He threatened metabolic and brain development problems, so we complied for a couple of days, during which we fed her pumped breast milk and formula until she spit up and slept for hours on end, skipping feedings, and I developed a plugged milk duct. I got so angry I couldn't sleep. Here we were settling into breast-feeding (no easy task!) and developing a supply of milk based on Ruby's demand, and at 4 weeks old we were turning all that on its head in order to measure up to a doctor's numbers. When Keith found out that the charts our doctor was using to plot weight gain are based on formula-fed babies who tend to be overfed more often, he too was furious. So we went back to breast milk only. We had to take her in to be weighed every 5 days or so but eventually, doctor #3 declared her healthy. She also admitted that the reason for so much worry expended on weight gain is that it's the only numerical way for doctors to assess progress--nevermind the smiling, object-tracking, sleeping, contented baby herself. It was a little rough refusing to make Ruby foie gras, but in the end we feel pretty sure that breast-feeding is worth all the anxiety expended along the way. She loves breast-feeding; her mom is even liking it, these days, and Ruby still takes the bottle too, so Keith can feed her pumped breast milk when needed or desired. There is plenty: she's got chunky little thighs and a layer of lovely baby fat all over her body.