In response to Karen Palmer's baby with tetralogy of fallot:

My first response is that this baby is not getting enough to eat.  Lack of
substantial weight gain and fussiness lead me to believe that this is the
problem.

In tetralogy of fallot, the baby has pulmonary stenosis which causes
decreased blood flow from the heart into the lungs.  The baby also has a
ventricular-septal defect which lets oxygen poor-blood mix with oxygen rich
blood.  Together these defects make the level of oxygen in the blood too low
which can lead to cyanosis.  

When the baby is breastfeeding, he may need to take more frequent breaks to
"catch his breath".  The baby may become fatigued more easily.  Ultimately,
the mother's milk supply may be adversely impacted.

I would advise the mother to continue to breastfeed, but also encourage her
to pump regularly to stimulate her milk supply.  The baby at this time will
need to be supplemented with the pumped milk.  

============================================
Ellen A. Steinberg, RN, LCCE, IBCLC





             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html