i think teresa may have the most logical answer to this baby's dilemma, but i
do think they should not give up on the possibility of an underlying physical
cause. i have had a couple of interesting cases along these lines, one baby
ended up having an extremely rare genetic disorder (REALLY rare), and the
other baby, at 15 months, was being called "happy to starve" and "addicted to
snacking at the breast" by his "doctor." i helped the mother by supporting
breastfeeding, giving her ideas to up the fat content of the milk he DID
take, etc., and to continue to explore physical causes. turned out that this
baby had an unusually small or constricted pylorus. he wasn't "refusing" to
eat, he was only eating the amount his stomach could handle.

so yes there are some unusual things, but hey, when you can't find a horse,
treat it as teresa suggests but continue to explore physical causes if that
doesn't help. and, if the baby is having difficulty growing, then he really
really needs the added nurturing.

and in other news, i had a client whose baby had a very tight frenulum, and
was only told at the hospital "well, that takes *surgery* to fix (like it was
open heart surgery or something). no referral, etc. the ped was also not
worried and just "supported the mother's choice to switch to bottlefeeding,"
what kind of world are we living in anyway? but when i wrote the doctor
describing what i saw, and included the fact that the baby was having
difficulty BOTTLEfeeding, well! it was another story altogether. that baby
had that frenulum fixed within twenty-four hours. the doctor told the
parents, well, you didn't tell me he had trouble with a bottle also!

well, at least she's breastfeeding now.

carol brussel IBCLC

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