Good day everyone

 

Just to share a story.

 

I was at the local Doctors and sat next to a mum with an obvious newborn. I

shared all the usual pleasantries, talking about the baby, how much life

changes etc. The mum recognised my voice and asked if I was a breastfeeding

councilor and I replied that I was and introduced myself.

 

The mum then retold her story about how I saw her with her first child 5

years ago. The baby was clicking when suckling and had a history of

prolonged periods without opening his bowels. The baby had a very large

number of wet nappies (can not remember how many but it exceeded the minimum

very easily). Mum had no pain and no damage to her nipples. She left the

area a couple of weeks later and I lost contact with her.

 

Mum told me that her child just seemed to outgrow the clicking but the

problem with the bowels continued. She saw the Dr (as was suggested)

regarding the bowls but was told that long periods with out bowel motions

were normal.  (She did follow suggestions regarding increasing feeding etc

but none of the worked which is why she followed up the Dr to make sure that

there was nothing (wrong).  This baby was producing pebbles which were

painful to defecate which had to be evacuated with suppositories!  They even

recommended coloxyl (no response) and various other medicines.  Once the

baby started on solids  things only got worse.  Eventually she managed to

get a pediatrician to listen to her.  After various tests, this little one

was discovered to have a severely distended bowel due sever and chronic

constipation caused by "lazy bowel syndrome".  The child is now 5, nearly 6

and still had problems.  There is a high chance that this child will suffer

all his life.

 

During the story the mum said to me, "I am so glad that I breastfeed for so

long and I did not give up in those early days.  Can you imagine what things

would have been like if he was bottle fed?

 

Mum then let me hold her new born  This was her 3rd child.  She was very

grateful for the support with her first bub and it gave her the

determination, wisdom and skills to go on and feed her next children.

 

Some things that I learnt from this time with mum-

 

You never know when you may meet up with mothers you had spent time with

You never truly know of the impact you have had till after the event -

sometimes many years

It pays to listen to the mother -

It is wise to remember that physical differences can and do happen

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

Happy Christmas and wonderful new year to all

 

Ruth Fiedler

Australia

 

 

 

 

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