Hi all,
I am wondering if anyone has info. on the appropriateness/efficacy of
offering breastmilk to an almost 3 yrold, severely incapacitated with a brain
tumor. I provided a home VNA visit today to this little boy. He was diagnosed
about a month ago, had surgery a few weeks ago to remove (80%) of his
astrocytoma lodged adjacent to the pituitary and hypothalamus, has a brain
shunt and is receiving NG feeds. He just came home yesterday. This case is so
sad, I can't even convey the depths of it but suffice it to say that this
child is extremely fragile, underweight and just started (yesterday) on what
is planned to be a 1.5 yr. course of chemotherapy.
Getting to the breastfeeding part..... He is Mom's first child, has a 1.5yr.
sibling and she is approx. 20 wks pregnant. She breastfed the first 2 for 6
months each and is planning to with the next. After seeing the Swedish MD
lecture at ILCA this past summer on his research regarding brmilk and
destruction of cancer cells and after hearing that some people have taken br.
milk when on chemo and assuming benefit from at least the immune properties,
I thought perhaps, this might be a valuable adjunct to therapy for this child
and mentioned this info. to his Mom. She was very interested and wondered
about the possibility of "speeding up" the lactation process currently
occurring within her breasts and I also mentioned the option of donor milk.
I can't help but feel that as a practicing RN, I am treading on unchartered
waters here which fills me with anxiety but on the other hand this child is
GRAVELY ill. Of course noone has mentioned any of this to Mom prior to my
meeting with her. The fact that she was at all open to it after just meeting
me today, for a brief time, is amazing. I left her with a plan to get more
info.for her. I imagine that I might meet much resistance from the medical
community already surrounding this family; the "big" Boston cancer center,
her obstetrician etc. and my own employer to name a few. How far out on a
limb am I here? Is there research out there that I can use to back this up or
lay person resources/support that I can provide to this family? Please, any
and all feedback is welcome! Thanks.
Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc
Franklin,Massachusetts

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html