Dear Lactnetters I need your brains - I have been talking to a mother who's
daughter was diagnosed as having nesidioblastosis twenty years ago ( Hirch
J. Harry et al:Hypoglycemia of Infancy And Nesidioblastosis. NEJM. June
1977;vol 296 no 2.1323- .) which resulted in the infant having an 80%
pancreatectomy. The child was fine until the age of 14 when she was
diagnosed as being an insulin dependent diabetic. She married, easily became
pregnant and delivered a healthy baby girl by CS 5 weeks ago. The
breastfeeding is going splendly but the mother is finding herself unable to
control her diabetis. She is having periods of hyperglycemia...over 300..but
sometimes she finds that after a meal and a nap she is in hypo. She uses
regular insulin during the day and nph at night. The grandmother harbors
guilt feelings that perhaps she could have prevented her daughters illness
by breastfeeding her...and is very keen that her daughter keep
breastfeeding. The baby is gaining well and nurses about six times a day. I
have no information on what happens when the baby feeds more often. In my
experience with "ordinary" juvenile diabetics....they some times are
hypoglycemic on frequency days....but I have never had a mother complain of
hyper. The diabetic specialist is out of town, and her gyn doesn't seem to k
now much about diabetis and breastfeeding. Fortunately this is a medical
problem so I am not asking for information to pass on...only for my own
curiosity. I frankly had never heard of this disease before...the
Grandmother faxed me the first page of the article. Has anyone had diabetic
mothers running into hyperglycemia while breastfeeding and monitoring
themselves. Does this condition cause a diferent type of reaction to
insulin?? Anybody. Sincerely Toby.
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Name: Toby Gish R.N.LLLL.IBCLC
e-mail<[log in to unmask]>
"What is essential is invisible to the eye..."
    Antoine De Saint-Exupery
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