While I agree that it is possible that this woman is insane I think it is much more likely that she is just getting extremely bad advice from her health care practioners. The recommendation to go to a GI specialist when a baby is not stooling and remains seriously under birth weight seems close to insane to me.This is why it is crucial to speak to her pediatrician. The mother reported that the trip to the GI was the doctor's idea. If this is indeed true then you know immediatiely where the problem is, and it is not with the mother.

The first assumption should be that the baby is underfed and before taking one step farther, that needed to be addressed. I have had two  occasions where the advice offered new parents has come close to this scenario. In both of those instances when I pointed out to the parents what needed to be done, the parents did it and the situation was rectified. I never reported the practioners but did write them letters. What makes me feel that this woman is probably not insane is that when it was pointed out to her that she needed to supplement the baby she did so with donor milk. She needs to understand that if she can't get her hands on enough donor milk she MUST use formula. 


As the baby gets larger the baby will only need more and more calories, so she is going to need more milk than she has now. The fact that the baby can transfer 2 oz at one feed does not mean that is happening at every feeding. .Many of my moms have their largest milk supply in the morning and find that it dwindles as the day goes on and that by  late in the day, even if they got 2 oz in the morning, the baby might only get half an ounce or so. She and the baby need a full work up to figure out what is going on. But everything here points to really bad advice and a mother who is trying to make things better with the limited info she has. She may be scared of formula and feeling that it is better for her baby to be underweight than to risk the baby's health with formula. She does not have to be insane to feel this, just misinformed.

Liane, I think the posting on this may feel intense because this situation is so scary. It is every lactation consultants worst nightmare. To be caught up in a situation where an infant is starving and nobody is recognizing that. We actually had a situation like that in NYC, where a young mother was never provided with the correct information and her baby starved to death. It was heartbreaking and of course the initial impulse in the justice system and the media, was to blame the mother, which just adds heartbreak on top of heartbreak. I don't think anybody means to be harsh, just emphatic!!!!

Kathy Lilleskov RN IBCLC

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