I am feeling SOOOO depressed about another case of a > 20% weight loss
infant from the SAME pediatrician who thought the last one was doing just
fine.

One of my supervisors saw the last one just after a visit to the
pediatrician's office and the infant was not effectively feeding with any
method (breast, finger, cup, bottle) and only took in 1/2 ounce.  She
called the pediatrician who thought the infant was doing just fine based on
a pre/post-feed weight check on a balance scale. That was the last feeding
that infant had on her own and went on to have a seizure in the middle of
the night. Once hospitalized, they discovered that the infant had undergone
a series of strokes.

Now there is another infant in the same circumstances. This second infant
is 8 days old and has lost > 20% from birth weight. The pediatrician told
the parents that this it is normal for an infant to loose a lot of weight
in the first week of life and not to worry about it, just pump extra milk.
The mother is not able to pump enough milk to feed this infant even though
she's practically pumping around the clock.  My supervisors put in a call
to the pediatrician's office to let her know that the mother is unable to
pump enough milk for the infant, but have as yet received no return call.
I'm dreading the potential next news about this infant.

This is the fourth case in about two months and, I have to say, as a
trainee, I never envisioned that these types of cases would come up so
frequently.

I'm trying to focus on another infant who had a stroke in utero.  He just
graduated to exclusive breastfeeding and looks marvelous.

Susan Burger
(feeling humbled by the complexity and severity of some cases)

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