I went to my scheduled in-service at a large pediatric group.  It was a
lot of fun.  3 of the doctors and about 12 RNs and LVNs (both male and
female) attended.  I had been asked to present on phone triage issues like
how to spot red flags. I used my clinical slides which illustrated the kinds
of questions which come in like: "My baby is sleepy,"  "I have sore nipples"
or engorgement, or whatever.  Some of the looks of horror told me that many
had never really visualized a truly engorged breast or a badly cracked
nipple.  So I think it will be useful to have a mental image of what mothers
are trying to deal with. This group is already very good and very careful
with their breastfed babies, but I was heartened to see they are determined
to be even more responsive.

A neat thing happened when I showed some pictures of tongue-tied babies and
told them that although there isn't much in their lit. about this, my own
experience was that frenotomy made a huge diff. for many of the babies I
see.  I mentioned my pedi ENT friend's study which I always try to promote.
One of the pedis said she had happened to hear him present this material
(which I am so happy to hear he is doing) and that based on his experience,
she had called in another ENT just last Sat. to clip a 3 day old baby in her
office.  Mom really wanted to bfeed and baby just couldn't.  Pedi watched
while ENT did the lysis.  No blood, no huge truama, baby went right to
breast and nursed like a champ.  She was amazed! I am equally amazed for
several reasons:  One that now there suddenly seem to be a whole bunch of
ENTs in Austin perfectly happy to do this proceedure, and two, that thanks
to this pedi's determination to see for herself, there is now a going to be
another strong voice in the pediatric community which her peers will trust,
speaking up for a case by case evaluation of infants with this condition.

Anyway, I was encouraged and energized wanted to share this good news about
these open minded doctors.

Barbara

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html