An other use of this term is that we are taking the patients word for the hx. She is most often doing the best she can with the knowlege or memory she has. I have been told "I do not have an allergy to dairy." The chart shows, "Pt. denies allergy to dairy." These patients will sometimes later be found to actually have an allergy when more work was done and situation pointed to the possibility of an allergy. The chart can them be ammended. If the chart had read, "Pt does not have an allergy." the situation may not have been investigated further. I have also had patients "deny" using bottles (in nipple confusion and suck problem cases,) because they assumed bottles of human milk didn't count! Rather than say "Baby has not been given artificial nipples" the chart read, "Pt denies artificial nipple use" and the question could be investigated in more depth when the LC got the chart. It often can help us define and clarify questions that may not have been correctly asked, were asked when the mother was in a stressed situation and not fully present or just forgot a part of her hx. (I've worked with mothers who actually forgot diseases and even positive TB tests.) Mary Jozwiak IBCLC AAPL LLLL Mama (who hopes she gets her registration form in in time to get SOME of her first session choices!) *********************************************** 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