Dear Lactnetters,
Greetings from a former lurker. My name is Kathie Tilton. I am an RN and LC
(hope to be IBCLC when results come in OCT.) with a multi-specialty group
practice in Manchester, NH. I love my job and am part of a very supportive
group.
I believe I may be able to shed some light on why an ABM company would want to
give soy-based samples to BF mothers. About 4 yrs. ago, the R--- rep came to
our pediatric dept. and gave an "inservice" on "How to handle phone calls from
parents of infants with diarrhea." They provided a free lunch for all the
nursing staff and showed a videotape. This coincided with a lot of reasearch
that was coming out at the time about babies with mild diarrhea doing better if
you continued to feed them rather than  use an oral rehydration solution.
Anyway, the gist of the talk was "now, when a mom calls and says her infant has
diarrhea you can be confident that she has recieved a sample of a good product
that will help her baby recover faster. " At no time were the nurses instructed
to ask whether or not the babies were breast or bottle fed. And we all know
what type of stools breastfed babies typically have, right? You get the
picture.

Kathie Tilton, RN, LC
Lahey Hitchcock Clinic
Manchester, NH
USA