Anh,
The fact that your baby was apparently not growing well at some point during
gestation (perhaps even only in the final weeks) could indicate that your
suspicion of a zinc deficiency is valid. It strikes me that the "breast as
pacifier" comment that we all recoil at might have some validity *if* there
is a zinc deficiency. In other words, the fact that your baby is so
well-attached and finds love and comfort at the breast would have prevented
much more serious problems *if* there is a zinc deficiency. Babies w/ a zinc
deficiency have little interest in food (cannot smell or taste it). So, a
bottle-fed baby just might not eat at all, but a bf baby who finds so much
more than food at the breast might still be sustained.
Several other things come to mind, some already mentioned. I have very
personal experience with a ped gastroenterologist. My 13 yr ds was diagnosed
at the age of 5 1/2 w/ extra-hepatic portal hypertension. He was born w/o a
portal vein and apparently the dianosis of such a condition tends to come at
about the age of 6 with severe internal bleeding. This is what happened to my
son. The doctors saved his life with the use of drugs and very invasive
techniques to stop the internal bleeding, as well as the use of blood
transfusions. The f/u included use of beta blockers and an endoscopy under
anesthesia every 3-6 months for the rest of his childhood! We did none of the
f/u. We used homeopathy, PT, herbs to heal his burned esophagus and
acupuncture. He has never had a recurrence or another drug in his body and is
a very powerful athlete (he has his goal set on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing,
when wushu becomes an official Olympic sport). I have never posted this story
before, but want to encourage you to think outside of the box on this. All of
us only know what we know, and we don't know what we don't know. My son was
not meant to live his life seeing himself as a sick person and I knew that.
Your doctors only know one way to look at this. The doctor who did my son's
surgery was brilliant, but wanted to know nothing about any other options.
The doc who followed him up for years kept saying to me "just keep doing what
you're doing", but didn't want to know more about it. He did admit to me
though that beta blockers had actually become controversial and he no longer
felt confident about their use for this condition.
The approach was to bring his body into balance through homeopathy (our
homeopath is truly brilliant as well) and acupuncture (which also stimulated
his very poor appetitie after the surgery--BTW, the technique used on him was
non-insertive--needles should not be inserted into young children). The PT,
IMO, was truly the most important treatment (warning---not all PT is like
this--most isn't!!!). The idea was that if we optimize his other systems, we
take all of the pressure off the injured system, thus allowing it to function
as well as possible. I have seen this PT treat CP, autism, FTT and many other
conditions with the kind of success most would believe impossible. Drugs are
not the only way to heal the body, and IMO, rarely actually have that outcome
at all.
Remember, as Diane said, human beings are driven to survive. Your baby
wants to thrive and her body wants to be in balance. A couple of other brief
thoughts--I may be getting to be a broken record on this--but a defiency of
EFA's can be a culprit here as well. The book "Fats That Heal, Fats That
Kill" by Udo Erasmus might be an important one for you to read. Finally, food
allergies may well come into play, and may even be all that there is to the
problem. If that is the case, I would suggest a good naturopath or homeopath.
Finally, you wrote:
<< Recommends: feed solids first, then try Pediasure, then offer breast.
Decrease frequency of feeds at breast. Try not to comfort nurse.>>
This tells me you need to find another doctor. For one thing--why are we
withholding the one thing that has sustained this baby? And why are we
feeding Pediasure? Has she read the ingredients in that stuff? If food
allergies are a problem--this is not going to help--it has almost every
possible allergen in it! And your baby needs comfort, and I'll bet you need
to comfort her!
Anh, if you want any more specific info about the treatments I mentioned or
even names--it is worth it to travel for some practitioners--please email me
privately. Believe me, when I made the choices I did for my son, every doctor
I saw wrote notes such as "mom refuses..." in his records. It was very hard,
b/c I could find noone else w/ his condition who did what we did, but it felt
right to us. And was I ever grateful that he bf for 4 1/2 years and had a
strong immune system and sustained no liver damage. Nursing your baby is not
the problem--it is the paradigm of those who don't know how to look at
nursing that is the problem.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
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