I have been appreciating the posts on the formula company bottle-cap contest
and the issue of whether nurses--or non-nurse LCs can or cannot tell a
patient and wanted to add my 2 cents to let off steam......

As to the former, I wonder if anyone (Zealots are Us maybe?)  has any bold
bright stickers we could put up next to the contest collection bags that say,
    "1 in every _#__ of formula-fed babies will get childhood cancer because
s/he wasn't breastfed....
     1 in every _#_ of formula-fed babies will get juvinile diabetis because
they were not bf......
     etc. etc. etc.
     Is there hope of instilling some guilt in the health care professionals
complying with this???  sigh....

As to the second problem, I have an LC(non-nurse) friend who works at a
hospital and is dealing with being told what she cannot tell a patient.  She
was told that she cannot tell any mothers that tongue-tie may be the cause of
her breastfeeding problem. (A physician demanded this :-/)  Recently she had
a mom with a baby that was so obviously tongue-tied that the nurses didn't
question at all that it was the problem.........but the LC felt her hands
were tied.  The hospital continues to threaten to delete their position so
speaking up feels more difficult.....
Her current resolution to this is to hand out the LLL # (hers-- but doesn't
relay that to the mom in the hospital) and tell the mom to call that number
for more information that can help her........

I'm looking forward to more discussion and SUGGESTIONS like Marsha Walker
offered!

Natalie Shenk, BS(Dietetics) IBCLC
Private Practice LC in Findlay OH, USA