>one time my elderly neighbor looked at my white/dirty white
> tongue and said, "You have stomach problems."  She, as well as a few more
> elderly people in my building, were doctors in another country.


I have a feeling the doctors of the old days who judged illnesses based on
tongue texture and color knew some subleties that we've lost with our more
sophisticated labwork.  I know when I once had what I self-diagnosed as
viral walking pneumonia, my tongue had a murky coating toward the back that
went away as I got to feeling better.  It was pretty clearly
illness-related.  A client with persistent thrush finally got past it when
she took oral nystatin herself.  Her comment:  "That funny taste in the back
of my mouth is gone now."

I once worked with a baby who'd had surgery for a cardiac defect.  He'd been
gaining adequately (just) until the surgery, when the docs wanted him to get
bottles of pumped milk so they could measure intake.  He hated the bottles,
and made it clear he'd rather stop gaining than eat any way but with direct,
no-plastic breastfeeding.  He started doing well again, but then shut down a
second time.  Mom's nipples got sore at the same time, and though his tongue
looked clear, they treated for thrush and his appetite resumed.  On the
other hand, one lactnetter - a particularly hard-working LC - wrote to say
she's had a coated tongue for years...

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY  USA
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html