Could part of the differences in feeding/growth of premature babies we're
hearing reported by Pamela in Zimbabwe and Nancy in San Diego be found in
the different reasons for prematurity in the two populations?

For instance, in my son's Special Ed class, all the children are officially
"mentally retarded" or they wouldn't be in the class.  But every child has a
different diagnosis -- my son has Down Syndrome, there is a child with Rett
Syndrome, a child who is excruciatingly tiny (not sure what the diagnosis
is), a child with cerebral palsy that includes mental retardation, a child
with autism, brain damage from a tumor, etc.  "Mental retardation" is a huge
big catch-all category that includes children who have many different
issues, strengths, weaknesses, reasons for being in the group, etc.

I suspect that "prematurity" is similarly diverse -- some babies are
premature because of being multiples (WAY TO GO -- NURSING TRIPLETS!!!  I'm
in awe!), while others are premature because of genetic problems, others due
to mother's illness, or "incompetent cervix" (sounds like a great insult to
hurl at someone -- "You have an incompetent cervix!  Nanny nanny boo boo!");
others are premature because the mother is a drug addict, others are "small
for gestational age" but not really premature at all, and still others are
premature because the doctors induced labor due to complications ranging
from hypertension in the mother to poor fetal growth, placental abruption,
etc.  So could it be that the kinds of early preemies seen in San Diego are
very different from the kinds of early preemies seen in Zimbabwe?  For
instance, Pamela -- do you seen many babies who are born prematurely due to
the mother having malaria towards the end of pregnancy?  This was an issue
in Mali.

Just curious.  Of course, as has been discussed before here on LactNet, and
mentioned again by Nancy Wight, it is difficult to define "optimum" growth
for premature babies -- should it be like intra-uterine growth?  Or is
slower growth an acceptable price to pay for not introducing anything other
than human breast milk?  Frankly, I think it would be a huge step forward if
babies got fortified human breast milk, compared to the standard practice in
most US hospitals of just giving them formula.

Kathy Dettwyler

P.S.  Highly recommend everyone go see the new film "Lake Placid."  It is
being promoted as a scary "Jaws"-like, "crocodile in a lake in New York"
movie, and does have a few very brief, very gory scenes involving the
crocodile eating people, but truthfully, it's a screamingly funny, smart
comedy.  The dialogue is truly hilarious.  The most entertaining movie I've
seen in years.

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html