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Subject:
From:
Kathy Dettwyler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 17 Feb 1997 09:13:48 -0600
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Did any of you LactNetters in the US see last night's made-for-TV movie with
Meryl Streep titled "First do no harm . . ."  It was about the use of the
ketogenic diet (high fat, low carbos) to control seizures in children, as an
alternative to drugs or surgery.  I thought it was a great movie (we have a
nephew who had a prenatal stroke and who has multiple seizure types, who has
been helped dramatically by this diet therapy, though he hasn't seen
complete recovery as portrayed in the movie).

Anyway, it was a searing indictment of the medical establishment -- lots of
parallels to our continued fight to get health care professionals to support
breastfeeding.  They didn't actually come out and discuss the financial
aspects of drug treatment for children with seizure disorders -- i.e., the
vested interests of the drug companies to convince doctors that the simply
diet doesn't work, but their expensive drugs do, but it sure came to my
mind.  And they talked a lot about the issues of shared responsibility for
health care, with parents expected to play a bigger role in the decisions
about their children's treatment, but then the parents not even being told
of this simple, cheap alternative therapy.  Many many parallels to the
breastfeeding struggle -- or is just that I see everything through
breast-milk-colored glasses??


Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University

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