To all;
        ORANGE CRYSTALS:   Many interesting posts followed since returning
from holidays. I especially enjoyed Pam's summary about urates and I beleive
that it was Jan's comments about no research in this area. This is another
one of those areas when someone makes absolute statements about the subject
without seeing the full picture and panic buttons are pushed. I would like
to add that some pediatricians have admitted babies to the hospital and
started IVs before getting all the results of bloodwork back and noted
afterwards that  the babies were not really dehydrated that much, all on the
basis of orange crystals.If the mom had been asked to pump and had given EBM
in another manner, the baby would not have to be so traumatized. On several
occasssions the mothers' confidence were so zapped that they thought they
were killing their babies by dehydrating them, so they opted to formula feed.
        LATEX ALLERGIES:    I have also noted several of you talking about
finger "cots" and gloved hands for finger feeding. In our area we have
become quite concerned about latex allergies. All latex balloons have been
banned from our hospital. We can use non latex gloves etc. But does anyone
else have a concern about using rubber or latex products in babies' mouths
for finger feeding and thereby setting up the potential for a latex allergy.
What about rubber nipples and finger cots? We have had a number of moms who
had latex allergies. Where did this start? was she originally bottle fed?
Can anyone respond to this

Attie (from Ontario Canada)