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Subject:
From:
"katherine a. dettwyler" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 1 Mar 1996 13:08:55 -0600
Content-Type:
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One of our grad students asked my advice about something her pediatrician
said.  Her baby is 2 months old, exclusively breastfed, healthy, happy,
gaining well (also beautiful!), BUT she spits up a lot.  She is fed on-cue
(demand) but that usually means only every 3-4 hours.  She does one big
nursing between 10-11 pm and then sleeps til 4 am, nurses again and sleeps
til 7.

At the two month check-up last week, mom mentioned the frequent spitting up
and pediatrician prescribed "Propulsid" -- a drug to make the breast milk
move out of the stomach faster and into the intestines.  Mom used it for a
few days but it caused terrible diarrhea/rash and extreme sleepiness in the
baby (both of which are listed as possible mild side effects).  Mom asked
for my advice.

I determined that the baby nurses "like a barracuda" and that mom has very
active let-downs that cause the baby to sputter, and that mom is usually
engorged by time baby wants to nurse again, and that baby often "clicks" as
she nurses.

I recommended that she try to get the baby to nurse more often so she
wouldn't be so hungry, to take her off the breast during the let-down and
let it drip for a minute, and to make sure baby is deeply latched-on.  I
also recommended that she take baby off the breast after every 5 minutes or
so and try to burp her.  Sounds to me like the baby is swallowing a lot of
air.  She wanted to stop the medication, and I encouraged her to make up her
own mind, talk to the doctor about the side effects, and basically not
assume she HAD to do it just because the doctor prescribed it.

Have any of you ever heard of this drug?  Does it make sense to go
immediately to a drug remedy for spitting up?

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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352

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