Table 2.
Infant Risk Factors for Lactation Problems
| Factors |
|---|
| Medical/anatomic/physiologic |
| • Low birth weight or premature (<37 weeks) |
| • Multiples |
| • Difficulty in latching on to one or both breasts |
| • Ineffective or unsustained suckling |
| • Oral anatomic abnormalities (e.g., cleft lip/palate, macroglossia, micrognathia, tight frenulum/ankyloglossia with trained medical assessment) |
| • Medical problems (e.g., hypoglycemia, infection, jaundice, respiratory distress) |
| • Neurologic problems (e.g., genetic syndromes, hypertonia, hypotonia) |
| • Persistently sleepy infant |
| • Excessive infant weight loss (>7–10% of birth weight in the first 48 hours) |
| Environmental |
| • Mother–infant separation |
| • Breast pump dependency |
| • Formula supplementation |
| • Effective breastfeeding not established by hospital discharge |
| • Discharge from the hospital at <48 hours of age50 |
| • Early pacifier use |