This post is regarding the baby I've written about before who "changed
colors", had heart problems ruled out and still persists in having sucking
problems. The mother was contacted by the neurologist last night who just
received the results of a test back. Apparently he had reviewed someone
else's interpretation earlier on, but now that he had a chance to see the
actual data, he feels that one of these two things are going on and is having
mom bring baby in for another urine sample to repeat the test.

My question for lactnetters: what do you know about methylmalonic acidemia?
Tabors says, "An inherited metabolic disease caused by inability to convert
methylmalonic acid to succinic acid. Clinically there are failure to grow,
mental retardation, and severe metabolic acidosis. One form of the disease
will respond to Vit B12 given either in utero or to the mother prior to
delivery."

Well, our baby is now about 2 mos of age, growing well when adequately fed
(13lbs), but still unable to efficiently strip the milk sinuses on her own.
Skin color is sometimes pink but often white. The mother is not a vegetarian.
Since Tabor's refers to an unborn baby, how will this all apply?  Does it
make sense, with these preliminary diagnoses, that the baby has not been able
to suck well? I would appreciate input from anyone who can help us to
understand this; it will be 10 more days until the second results are in, and
in the meantime we want to scavenge all info possible.

One thought: if I understand this correctly, the toxicity builds up over time
to cause damage. Only the breastfeeding problem, which mom has persisted in
trying to fix, has been the red flag. What if she had been a bottlefeeding
mom, or had quickly resigned herself to bottlefeeding and not pursued all of
these tests?

-Lisa Marasco, LLLL, IBCLC
Santa Maria, CA