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

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