Kathy, there is a RD, CLE attempting to do a research study on ECMO babies and breastfeeding here in Cincinnati! There seems to be some very serious oral aversion in ECMO babies...and she told me she would like to know why. Some of those kids go home with G-tubes...simply cause they won't take enough by mouth. Interesting phenomena....seems to be not just related to noxious oral stim. Because other kids with the same degree of such are not so difficult to retrain. I have observed a similar kind of oral aversion in some cardiac babies....could it just be that feeding is too hard for them? I don't know. Anyone else out there looking at this??? Susan Keith-Hergert RN, MS, CPN, IBCLC Mercy Health Partners Cincinnati, Ohio Kathy Dettwyler <[log in to unmask]> on 07/17/99 12:37:15 PM Please respond to Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] cc: (bcc: Susan J Keith-Hergert/MGCR/CHP) Subject: Depressing A&E program I just watched an interesting, but depressing, Arts and Entertainment network show called "The New Pioneers." This one was about a NICU doctor who has had great success saving babies' lives who had heart and/or lung problems by putting them on a machine called ECMO (extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation) -- basically a heart/lung bypass machine. They talked about how a child's chances of survival improved from less than 10% without the machine to 80% with the machine. Amazing technology, cool that babies lives can be saved . . . . However, there was no mention of breastfeeding, one scene of a baby getting "special nutrients" through a catheter into a leg, one ECMO baby who dies of "a severe intestinal infection unrelated to the ECMO procedure" (I assume that was necrotizing enterocolitis, which might have been prevented with breast milk), no mention of the moms pumping, and one scene at the end where the older sister of a now-doing-well baby is shown holding him and giving him a bottle while the surgeon crows "There, now you've learned how to feed your baby brother!" These babies need breast milk and breastfeeding, and their sisters need to learn that babies are fed at their mother's breast!!!! Kathy Dettwyler *********************************************** 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 *********************************************** 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