Give me strength!  This morning I received a call from a lovely client whose
exclusively BF baby (now 4 mo) did really well until 6 weeks (gaining an
average of 36.8g/day).  The weight then started falling off and by 3 months
she had only gained 4g/day in the previous two weeks, when she contacted me
again.  We went through everything (or so I thought!) and finally
established (a) that mom had started the mini-pill at 6 weeks and (b) that
mom had been happy with 3 - 4 hours between breastfeeds, until the last few
days.  Mom stopped the mini-pill, and breastfed a lot and baby's rate of
gain shot up to an average 27g/day in the next month.

Today she phones about a "friend", who is about to start the mini-pill and
who she anticipates will not be as flexible about frequent breastfeeding as
she herself was. Why not? It turns out that the friend is following the Ezzo
program (as *she herself did*, I now discover, during the time of low gain
!!!).  Not only this. She belongs to a Mom's Group run by her Church and A
LOT of the mothers there are practising Parent Directed Feeding a la Ezzo!
I express my serious concern (to put it mildly) and that of my "colleagues
overseas" (thanks, guys!) and as we talk about How The Breasts Make Milk
(reasons for concern) she hits on the idea of asking me to come and speak to
the group.

I am truly appalled to think that an Ezzo following may be taking hold here.
If my client follows through with an invitation I would like to go
well-armed and perhaps leave them with a hand-out.  I don't want to address
the Christian aspects (not my specialty, none of my business, and I don't
want to offend), but I want to explain exactly why imposed routines and
schedules can lead to lactation failure for the mom and low gain/FTT for the
baby.  I would also like to include some quotes and/or references from the
AAP and some of the "experts" who have spoken out about this program.  Would
anyone be willing to share anything similar they may have developed, or have
any better ideas?

Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe
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