I guess I need to make some clarification of what I said about sleepy babies
and force feeding inappropriately.  I am thinking of the first few days in
the hospital, when healthy term babies have a little extra weight to live
off of.  I'm not talking about a one week old or one month old baby who
isn't waking to feed.  That is clearly a sign that more urgent measures may
need to be taken.  I'm talking about the first few days when some people,
parents as well as staff, freak out if the baby has gone 6 hours without
feeding.  I've seen formula given the first day for a baby not feeding much
and, unless there are other factors like low blood sugar and no
breastfeeding or colostrum to use, I can't figure why that would be
necessary or advisable in the name of "feeding the baby".  
	Now, the details of the Mexico City earthquake are a little unclear
to me as well as Diane, as far as numbers and such go.  I remember when it
happened (I was a LLLL at the time with small kids at home) and I remember a
follow-up story with a group of 5 or 6 children who lived through the
hospital collapse when they were newborns and were then 5 years old.  It was
said that none of the 5 (or 6) displayed any lasting effect.  No
developmental delays, nothing.  Nada.  And these kids were running around
like any normal child would.  This is when it was explained how this could
possibly have been.  Now, Catherine says that this "shut-down" is the
protest-despair dissociation and in this case, yes.  What about the baby
whose parents were lost in a blizzard for a week or more and the mother
thought the baby was dead because he hadn't moved in more than a day when
they were finally found.  She had been breastfeeding him, but either lost
her milk or never had a full supply before...in any case, he had stopped
getting anything.  The doctors explained this shut-down was a way of
conserving energy and her baby was fine after being rehydrated.  I don't
know that despair would explain that, since the child was still being tended
to and fed, just not getting anything.  That sounds more like a physiologic
reaction to lack of food, not lack of tending, which is what, I think, Nils
Bergman is really referring to with the protest-despair reaction.

Marsha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations
as all other earthly causes combined.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~John S. C. Abbot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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