>
> Aimee,
>

My daughter was also exclusively fed my EBM by gtube for her entire
babyhood.  I also got lots of pressure starting at 6 months and continuing
until I finally switched her to an entirely food-based liquid diet, about
the fact that my milk would not "sustain" her.  I constantly looked for
journal articles and never found any.  The only thing that helped me to hold
to my guns was the fact that I spoke with several dieticians: the one at the
outpatient feeding clinic, the one that worked for the DME company, the
inpatient dietician , and the one who worked at the feeding clinic where my
daughter actually received services. I asked each one of them what they
would give her after she was transitioned off of EBM. They all said that
until she was *at least* one year old they would prescribe ABM and then they
would transition to pediasure.  If she couldn't make the transition, they
would keep her on ABM until she could make the transition.  Most kids made
it by 2.  That was all I needed.

If ABM is "okay" for her for one year, then my milk would surely be better.
 I did supplement with a liquid vitamin including iron the second half of
that first year, but I did not start adding "solids" to her diet until 12
months.  (solids consisted of pureed baby food blended in with her EBM)

The "evidence" may be there, but nobody in my neck of the woods was reading
it.  Experience and "what we've always done" seemed to be the way they all
made their recommendations.

warmly,

Karin Hardman


> Date:    Tue, 5 Jan 2010 09:14:40 -0500
> From:    Aimee Crane <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Length of Exclusive Breastfeeding
>
> I have been working with a mother whose baby was born with Cri-du-chat
> syndrome for some months now.  The infant's epiglottis doesn't function
> (yet) so she receives all of her nutrition (to date, exclusively her
> mother's expressed breastmilk) through a tube which goes directly into her
> stomach through her abdomen.  My question is this (from the mother): For how
> long can her baby receive nothing but her breastmilk?  I know that 6 months
> of exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for all mothers, and that mothers
> who have food allergy issues (or their baby does) are sometimes recommended
> to continue to provide exclusively breastmilk up to one year, but for how
> much longer can a baby receive ONLY breastmilk?  (I believe the mother is
> asking this question because her baby will have her next swallow study in a
> month or so, and she is already being pressured to supplement her
> breastmilk, and she wants to be prepared with STUDIES to back her up as to
> the safety of continuing to feed only her milk to her baby if the baby
> "fails" the swallow study (i.e., has to continue with this stomach tube.)
>

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