LACTNET Archives

Lactation Information and Discussion

LACTNET@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Susan Burger <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:00:48 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (23 lines)
Erika asks a very important question about whether you can assume if a frenectomy is done and significant results occur that the baby really needed it.  I assume that she means better breastfeeding as the "significant result". 

There is a fundamental issue that occurs for all of us when we collect our anecdotal clinical information.  We are NOT randomly assigning mothers and babies to one treatment and comparing that to another treatment.  So, we don't really know what would have happened had that particular case chosen a different path.  Furthermore, we ALL have drop outs from our practices -  or have certain types of clients who are attracted to our practices.  So, we do not know what happened with the drop outs.

There is also a phenomenon that we recognized in international nutrition.  Babies develop over time.  If you start out with a population of infants or young children who are malnourished -- if you do nothing at all, most of these children will get better with age or die -- simply because the stronger children will develop and become more capable of asserting their need for food from the family table and the weak ones do just whither away..  So, if you have an intervention and you follow those same children over time, they will get better or die as they age, regardless of the intervention.  The only way you know that the intervention actually worked is if MORE children got better among a group that received the intervention than among a group that did not.  

So, if one person is convinced that a combination of clipping all the posterior tongue ties, coupled with craniosacral therapy, coupled with suck training -- if that person only looks at the before and after results of her own clients, she will not really be able to demonstrate that any of these interventions -- or even any particular combination of these interventions really created the results.  

One must follow up with properly designed intervention trials.

Best, Susan Burger

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

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome

ATOM RSS1 RSS2