>here's your new motto: it ain't milk until its measured. look how convenient
>it is to look at the markings on the side of the bottle. metric AND american.

I had a call from a mom whose third baby was a preemie.  She was disallowed
from putting him to the breast by the neonatologist, who, of course "owns"
the baby. One night she did put the baby to breast and he fed.  She could
hear swallows and knew what a feeding baby felt like.

She told the nurse that her baby fed well.  The nurse said that she was
certain that he couldn't have gotten enough and that he stopped feeding
because he was so tired.  She then pumped out his stomach, measured the
amount that he consumed [which was as much as he was "supposed" to],
properly recorded it, and then put it back into his stomach through the tube.

I hope that this seems as bazaar to the rest of you as it did to that mom
and to me.

The mom called me to see if I could help her to deal with the hospital
staff in getting her baby to breast.  After this story, I knew that I could
do nothing in that foreign land, so I referred her to the hospital LC, who,
at least knows the vocabulary of the NICU and the personalities of the staff.

I did suggest that she inform them that there are electronic scales that
can measure intake and that she keep "making waves."

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin


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