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Date: | Sun, 17 Jun 2007 19:09:11 +0100 |
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Thanks for responding to my query, Maggie. I hope your son is healthy now.
>I have nothing but anecdotal reasons for clinical use but here goes.
>
>My middle child had intestinal mal-absorption problems when he was 6 weeks
>old. He was hospitalized and I was ordered to pump instead of breast feed.
>After 2 days more of weight loss the MD wanted me to stop pumping and start
>giving him ABM that was fortified for higher calories. My LLLL and
>also a nurse
>at this hospital(God Bless you Jane) suggested that they do a creamatocrit of
>my milk to detemine the actual caloric content of my milk. The analysis found
>that my body was actually producing milk that had a higher caloric content
>than the fortified formula!
Well.....I can understand why this result turned out to be useful in
this situation, but
i) ordering ABM instead of breastmilk in this situation is clinically
*highly* questionable, surely
ii) the sample of milk expressed may have shown up as being lower in
calories - you were lucky it didn't! A test like this might have
backfired.
In any case, a sample of milk can only ever offer a snapshot in terms
of quantity and in terms of its fat content - and it only measures
what comes out of the mother, not what goes into the baby.
Testing breastmilk in order to placate the concerns of medics and
others who don't understand or trust the process is, lets say, a
risky business.
>
>The second time a creamatocrit was taken of breast milk was (unfortunately
>same child) when my son had cancer. I was lucky enough to have a
>donor Mom who
>was willing to pump for my son. After his surgery he was unable to keep
>anything down except breast milk. The head nurse in the hot unit (
>a nursing mom
>herself) recognized the 'special milk' we were giving him and did an analysis
>of the milk as a way to 'justify' the use if anyone asked. No one did and
>our son left the unit 5 days before anyone expected him too.
This worked out well for you, Maggie, but anyone who would be against
the use of donor milk in this situation might have had other concerns
than the fat content of the donation.
>
>Both analysis were done for the benefit of our family. I realize that these
>are isolated instances but the possible uses for creamatocrits as one of the
>clinical instruments used by professionals seems evident to me.
Not to me....and I am still waiting evidence that it can be of any
use in situations where correct understanding and trust of the
process and the product of breastfeeding are apparent. To use it
where this understanding and trust are not present risks backfiring.
Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
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