Diane, I attempted your email address directly but could not get a
connection, so I'm using the Lactnet reply. My comment is not on the
subject per se, but rather to say how much I learn from your comments, and
also to say that my son attends Cornell, so I have "special interests" in
Ithaca. May I ask how and where you practice? Might we meet sometime when
I am visiting? I am currently a hospital-based LC and also do private
practice.
Thanks,
Patricia Ellis, RN, MA, IBCLC
Bridgewater, NJ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Wiessinger" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 7:58 AM
Subject: omphalocele
> Neil Campbell, MD (Australia) did a wonderful plenary session for the 1993
> ILCA conference on breastmilk feeding of seriously ill babies. His
> overriding comment: It's not the nature of the problem but the motivation
> of those involved that determines whether or not a baby can be breastfed.
>
> Among the slides he shows are a couple of babies with externalized bowel,
> although the term "omphalocele" isn't used. He talks about how the bowel
> may be utterly unable to function at first, and may then have severe
> malabsorption problems. Since lactose is considered to be one of the big
> problems, it used to be that "sophisticated artificial milks" were
> considered necessary. Later, it was generally agreed that breastmilk
could
> be *tried* as a first feed, but *when* diarrhea occurred, the baby would
> need to be switched to the sophisticated artificial feed. In his
facility,
> however, they would make numerous attempts with human milk before
abandoning
> it. At a time when 50% of Australian babies overall were discharged
> breastfeeding, *50% of the babies in his facility who were born with major
> bowel abnormalities went home breastfeeding*. He did stress, however,
that
> about a third went home still unable to tolerate human milk.
>
> I wonder: if lactose is the chief problem, why not just add lactase to th
e
> milk, and offer these babies lactose-free breastmilk?? Seems simple
enough,
> and well worth a go if the straight stuff isn't working.
>
> He has pictures of a baby with a massive jaw tumor... breastfeeding; with
a
> grossly enlarged tongue... breastfeeding; in a rigid legs-in-the-air frame
> that's drawing his pelvis into line... breastfeeding.
>
> Those of you who have his video, dig it out and view it again. It's
*very*
> satisfying, and his overriding message is worth repeating: it isn't the
> nature of the problem but the motivation of those involved that determines
> whether or not a baby can be breastfed.
>
> Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC Ithaca, NY
> www.wiessinger.baka.com
>
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