To Elisa,

Re:
>Hello! I.m so glad that GI reflux was brought up.  At one of the hosp I work
>in as an LC, it's common practice for the ped to refer to
>pedgastroenterologist, who then prescribes CEREAL, Reglan and/or Tagamet.  It
>is not uncommon to see babies 2 to 4 days old on this regime.  It drives me
>buggy to see a bf mother be told her baby has to have cereal to help PREVENT
>reflux...What about predisposing these babies to allergies later on?? Have
>you all experienced this too.  The ped  tells me this is the best was to
>manage reflux.  Comments, please. Thanks

I had a Rental customer a couple of years ago who had twin boys.  A couple
of weeks after D/C home, the bigger one who was breastfeeding well had an
apneic spell and was rushed back to hosp.  She was told it was because of
reflux and he couldn't have any more breastmilk because it wasn't "heavy"
enough in his stomach.  He was put on formula with cereal mixed in.

The other baby had not been doing well at breast and Mom had been pumping
for him but she only continued for a few days after 1st baby was put on
formula.  She said the formula baby, who had been a content breastfeeding
baby started crying all the time and she just couldn't handle pumping,
trying to breastfeed the smaller one and coping with the baby with reflux.

She was not really a client and I never actually met her but I encouraged
her to seek a 2nd opinion from a pediatrician I knew at the hospital
who is generally supportive of BFing and had a specialty in nutrition.
She, unfortunately, would not recommend going against the 1st ped.'s
routine, so the Mom stopped pumpimg and ende up with 2 crying, formula-fed
babies.  It was pretty discouraging.

--
******Joan M. Fisher, RN, BN, MEd, IBCLC******
***********Ottawa, Ontario, Canada************
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