Thank you to all who have help on and off list with the baby I posted about
several days ago.  She is breastfeeding and being supplemented with her own
mother's milk and steadily gaining 0.5 oz per day.  She has a new
pediatrician with a PNP in the office who is a wonderful resource.  She
often sends mothers to me when they need help or supplies.  This time, I
sent this family to her when mother asked for a recommendation.  Both ped
and PNP are satisfied that this baby just needs a little more time.  They
are not alarmed.  They reassured both mother and me by their thorough
assessment.

The first ped, however, created an additional problem.  Mother kept every
appointment with them in the first two weeks.  Everyday she brought the baby
to see either the ped or me.  I documented the visits and faxed reports to
the ped.  I never heard from them though.  When mother continued to resist
their insistence on formula supplements despite her history of ulcerative
colitis, they wrote the order for all the lab work last Saturday.  The
parents decided to wait until Monday to go to the lab; the weather
deterioirated into a serious blizzard that day.  Meanwhile, she sought out a
second opinion and Monday scheduled a new ped visit for Tuesday.  She called
the first ped and was frank about seeking a second opinion.  The second ped
visit is described above.  However, the second ped and the mother were
visited by DCFS (Dept. of Children & Family Services) investigator.
Happily, the second ped was quite firm about the infant being in good
condition with a competent and loving mother working very hard to meet the
child's needs.  The mother took confidence from this and was not flustered
or alarmed by the investigator's visit.  No one has called on me about this
case.  Since DCFS keeps confidential the identity of the person filing a
report, we can only conjecture who initiated the report.

I wish that DCFS also took reports about peds who have a conflict of
interest created by accepting free goods from formula reps, not listening to
parents and endangering the longterm health of children by interfering with
breastfeeding.  I am really disappointed in the LC at the first ped's office
whose only suggestion to this mother was to take home a package of formula
and use it.  Last Saturday, she even took the father aside and told him his
wife was stressed and needed to sleep undisturbed that night so he should
give the formula.  The report to DCFS was initiated after the mother asked
for records to be sent to the ped she was seeking a second opinion from.

I will continue to monitor this baby's progress, but now I have help from a
ped and PNP who communicate with the mother and with me so that we are all
working as a team.

Thanks again to everyone who helped.              Diane Perrone, RNC

Materna Wellborn

Algonquin   IL  USA

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
Mail all commands to [log in to unmask]
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask])
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]