Church

Just two notes.  I have regularly breastfed both of my infants in church.  I
was astonished to discover that many of the other mothers of infants were
expressing milk and feeding it in bottles during church, and that they never
breastfed in public.  I felt that I had misjugded them, because I assumed
that they were doing artificial feeding all the time, simply because I saw
them with a bottle.  Let's hope that my example will make it easier for them
to decide to breastfeed in public in the future.

I have an old friend who is an Episcopal minister (priest?)  She
breastfed/is breastfeeding her children, and maintains that having grown up
on a farm, she understood the practical aspects of lactation from the
animals.  She routinely makes pastoral visits to new mothers (with an
breastfeeding child if one of hers is available).  During her pastoral
visits she has been known to help with breastfeeding problems, including
demonstrating proper latch on with her own child!  She has also been know to
argue (discuss?) questions of policy and doctrine with her bishop with a
baby at the breast.  Gives a whole new dimension to the job of priest,
doesn't it?

Dentists

While we are not lucky enough to have truly baby friendly hospitals here in
my area of southwest Virginia when it comes to childbirth, your posts about
dentists and doctors separating frightened children from their parents make
me truly grateful for what we do have.  My dentist's office has no doors to
speak of, so there is no way to shut the parents out, and they expect the
parent to stay with the child throughout even normal cleanings.  So
entrenched is this practice that they would not even take my 5 year old
daughter upstairs to the hygenists room until I had finished discussing some
billing matters with the receptionist!  I've made three trips to the
emergency room at our small county hospital with one of my children, and
there was never any question but that I would stay with the child.  In fact,
when she was 3, she had a gash in her forehead stitched up with both parents
and her 5 month old sister present,singing nursery rhymes and playing
counting games to help distract her.  Now, mind you, this is in a hospital
where it is still standard procedure to hook every laboring woman up to an
IV, to make her lie down, and to do continuous monitoring.  Maybe the
emergency room physicians should start doing OB work.

Tight Latch

Thank you to those who suggested the possibility that a tight latch in a
toddler might be due to GI tract irritation.  Thanks to you, I was able to
narrow down possible causes and we have discovered that my daughter is
actually suffering from a degree of lactose intolerance.  She has never had
much bovine milk, so it was hard to pin down, but over Thanksgiving, she
requested and was given cereal and milk every morning for breakfast.  The
results of this "binge" were stomach aches for 5 days, and a firm diagnosis.
It certainly made me feel justified in my suspicions of a sensitivity to
cow's milk in this child.  What I had not realized until I discussed it with
our doctor was that diarrhea is not consistantly a symptom of lactose
intolerance.  Her case was mimicing constipation, with stools only about
twice a week.  Thanks again for the suggestions that helped solve this.  I
know several other mothers of nursing toddlers who are trying to discover
why their children have begun to have a tight latch.  I'll make a point of
passing this info on to the LLL leaders in my area, because when I went to
them for suggestions, they really didn't have any answers.





Margaret K.K. Radcliffe               [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Mining & Minerals Engr.
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA