Just wanted to add some personal experience to this topic. My daughter, Julia, was born, at term, with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, followed by both physiological and social difficulties (trauma from painful medical procedures and birth parents who paid no attention to her). She came to me at six months old, weighing just over nine pounds. Fortunately, she was my fourth baby and I was prepared for it. She gained two pounds during the first three weeks I had her, and then continued gaining at a rate that was around 25% faster than average. Shortly after that, I took her to a pediatrician on the base, for pneumonia. I explained about her early problems and how much weight she had gained since we'd had her but, apparently, he didn't hear a word of it. When he saw that she was about eleven and half pounds, he started talking about failure to thrive. I repeated, again, how much weight she had gained since we'd had her, but he kept harping on her being FTT and at one point said, "It would help if you would tell me how much she weighed when you got her", which I had all ready done, twice. Finally, I managed to say it loud enough that he could hear me over his own voice. At 13 months, she got RSV, which was more serious for her because of her CDH, so she was hospitalized. At 26 inches and 17 pounds, she was still small for her age, but well proportioned and still gradually catching up to other children her age. After the doctor there first examined her, he mumbled something about FTT. Shortly after he left, a dietician came in, looking like she'd seen a ghost, and then looking shocked when she saw Julia. Apparently, she was expecting a child who was nearing death's door, from starvation. She told me that the information she had been given was that Julia was 31 inches long and weighed 14 pounds! It would have certainly been appropriate for the doctor to be concerned about a child who really WAS that height and weight, but he had seen and examined Julia, so I was dumbfounded as to how he would have thought those numbers could have been correct! Fortunately, only weeks earlier, I had finally succeeded in getting Julia breastfeeding. While she was in the hospital, about all she did was nurse, which I am sure was a big part of why she was well enough to be allowed to go home after less than two days there. Those experiences both shook me up and there I was an experienced mother, a doctor's wife, and 36 years old! I can't imagine how many young breastfeeding mothers have had their confidence so totally shattered by idiotic statements made by doctors who don't bother to listen to the mom or look at the baby, that they have given up breastfeeding and felt like failures! So sad and so unnecessary! Darillyn *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html