I, too, have pondered the concept of exclusive breastfeeding and the use of such things as Gripe Water and oral treatments for thrush. A baby who is suffering with painful gas and is crying in pain for hours is very hard to watch. [I know from experience.] I try to find out the cause of the pain and help the mother resolve the problem if I can. Most times we can discover the basis of the intestinal cramping but sometimes we can't. To fail to offer relief to the infant's suffering because of a dedication to exclusive breastfeeding seems a bit off to me. I know that anything given to an infant other than human milk changes the environment of the gut and doing that should be avoided if at all possible. And I respect that. I also know that when the invasive substance is discontinued and human milk becomes the only substance ingested, the gut returns to its former health. Baby can then go on to feed for 1,2,3 years...with pleasure. The same concern comes up with treating thrush. I'm sure that Nystatin suspension or gentian violet or Diflucan is not what an infant's gut is supposed to have introduced to it. But I don't advocate a baby's continuing to suffer with a terrible sore throat and irritated mouth that causes her to limit her feeding times, while Mom is crying through each feeding with burning, damaged nipples. And I don't advocate failing to treat to the resolution of her yeast overgrowth when her bottom is terribly irritated, her intestines are cramping with gas pains, and she feels generally miserable. So even I, who am a strong advocate of exclusive breastfeeding, would not feel that I am serving my clients well if I discouraged their treating their infants for pain--whatever the cause--, when such treatment can assure continued breastfeeding for an extended time. I know that every culture has had something that is given to baby for stomach/intestinal distress . I hope that the current ones are an improvement over some of those in the past. Pat Gima, IBCLC Milwaukee, Wisconsin Mailto:[log in to unmask] *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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