Forgive an old lady asking ignorant questions, but is it list etiquette to
send posts to both the list, where it was discussed, and also the person
contributing the topic to the list? If so I am guilty of unintentional
breaches. I would only do this in picking up on non-current topics from the
archives, as I assume the person who sends is going to hang about to read
replies for a few days at least.. but the idea of doubling the number of
transmissions or making sure I retain the e-mail address of the poster has
little appeal. Some people do for me and some don't: I've never seen it as
mandatory. Mistress of the Lists, can you advise? Mea culpa if need be..

Tom, I also hope my post wasn't seen as full speed ahead etc. I wasn't
being critical of care in this particular case, about which none of us can
judge really, but of the general principles that seem to have informed it.
I think it is valid to ask for good evidence before suspending
breastfeeding, and swapping to a riskier behaviour. If the baby is very
frail, this only makes breastmilk more important. NEC is nastier than
rubella usually. And I absolutely don't back away from my belief that the
exclusively breastfed baby is probably at very little risk because
breastmilk is designed to present babies with manageable doses of
everything in teh environment......of course, if the baby has been comped
and is already suffering from that formula -feeding, the risks are far
greater, and thus it would be very important to know every detail of the
baby's feeding history (e.g., bovine based so-called fortifiers, those
products that result in lower bone density in 5 year olds)  in any case
where such vaccination of the mother was associated with later illness in
the child. Publish studies of adverse effects in exclusively breastfed
babies that are greater than the undoubted adverse effects in infants
swapped to formulas, and I'll reluctantly agree that the use of elemental
(not animal or plant based) formulas could be useful. Remember it wasn't
long ago that 20% of more of US prem babies were developing NEC, and the
death rate was around 20% of those that got it. Meanwhile it was .05% in
some places where only human milk was used. What are the US figures now, I
wonder? Maureen

Maureen Minchin, IBCLC, 5 St, George's Rd., Armadale Vic 3143 Australia
tel/fax till maybe end January or mid Feb: 61.3.95094929 or 95000648
tel/fax after that: will let you know
Address (date depends on renovations; will post): Christ Church Vicarage,
14 Acland St., St.Kilda, Vic. 3182 Australia