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From:
Christina Schaefer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 27 May 2016 16:26:21 -0500
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If I could only be as clever! I enjoyed this so much. Thank you for sharing! 


Christina Schaefer 

> On May 27, 2016, at 4:14 PM, Pat Young <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> a neat Lactnet message from 1999 today, wanted to share. Couldn't get archives to cooperate...do they go that far back?
> 
> Esther Grunis ([log in to unmask]) said: Subject : Supplements for  bottle fed babies
> When I walked into the nursery this morning, one of the nurses said she has a "naughty" baby, ie. one who had lost too much weight.  According to his chart, he had lost almost 8% of his birth weight by day 2.  I flipped the page to see what had been happening with the breastfeeding and guess what...he is a bottle baby, and never got breast milk in his life, poor kid.  I told the nurse that he is a bottler, and I would go call the mom to give him a supplement.  She asked me what supplement and I said a breast, of course.  She looked at me like I was totally nuts and said "but she is bottle feeding." So I answered that normally in our hospital, when a breastfed baby loses too much weight "we" give him a supplementary bottle of ABM, so obviously if a bottle fed baby is losing too much weight we have to give him a breast.  But she argued with me that the mother has chosen not to breastfeed and we have no right to force her to do so.  So I argued that this is true, but when a breastfed baby loses too much weight even though the mother has chosen not to bottle feed, we scare her into giving a supp bottle to avoid intravenous feeds, we frighten her that her  baby will dehydrate or worse, and sometimes we even say that her baby will have to remain in the hospital even long after the mom has gone home, and thus we are forcing her to give bottles even though she has chosen to breastfeed.  She said that she just couldn't force the mom to breastfeed.
> 
> (By his time, what I was saying was starting to sink in, and I smiled as if I were joking, but I was dead serious.)  "And now you understand why it is so difficult and illogical for me to tell a mom to give an artificial supplement, even if the baby is losing weight. "  (They always beg me to convince the mom to give a bottle, because if I say it they listen to me,)
> 
> So I asked her to teach me what she does when a bottled baby loses weight.  Her answer was logical: - ask the mom  how the baby is feeding, if he is sleeping through feeds -watch how she feeds him to see if there is a problem with technique - sit with the mom and explain how  to hold the baby while he feeds, see if he is sucking properly, etc. (sound familiar?)--check to see i if he doesn't have another physical problem - if all the above are OK, try another formula.
> 
> So I asked her why our hospital gives preferential treatment to bottle fed babies. She said of course we don't.  And I said if only we would follow these simple steps when a breastfed baby lost weight, before we crammed a bottle into his little mouth, we could make a lot of moms and babies much happier.  She said that I really opened her eyes with that "game" I played  with her.  We have to start using two separate thinking methods with breastfed and bottle fed babies.  And not cross methods so easily.  There have been cases where we have asked mothers who chose not to breastfeed to reconsider because baby can't digest anything else, but only after trying everything else first.  We have to convince them to take the same stand with breastfeeders.
> 
> She made a few other amusing comments about preparing for a 6 hour in-service for the bottle-friendly nursing staff, mentioned lobotomies, LOL.  Anyway I got a kick out of reading this old Lactnet message, hope you do too.  I must have had a good reason for printing it out 17 years ago, but I'm drowning in paper here and trying to let go :-). Pat in SNJ
> 
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