Whoa!!!!  I NEVER send a mother home with a bottle of formula - Just a
bottle of sterile water and some medicine cups for if she gets desperate if
baby starts his fussy day before the milk comes in.

The nurses at our hospital would laugh hysterically if someone told them
Jude Kurokawa gave a bf mother formula.  They are the same ones who have had
to write incident reports when they gave formula AGAINST my orders.  I am a
dragon!!!  (Wow! looks like you hit my buttons, huh? <VBG>)

If the mom is still in the hospital and wants to give formula, the nurses
must call me before giving it.  If that is at 3 in the AM, so be it.  I then
call the mom on her room phone and discuss it first.  Usually come up and
figger out something to do besides ABM.

My reasoning for sending home water and cups is that if the mom gets too
frantic about this baby that is "starving to death" and milk not yet in, she
all too often gets some ABM and feeds it that.  Whereas, with a sip of h2o,
the baby will often settle back to the breast, go to sleep, and when he
wakes again the milk is there, or at least a bit closer.

Sorry for the long rant... just don't want my pristine reputation soiled.
<VBG>

Jude
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Jude Kurokawa, CNM, FNP
513 Dayton St.   Wolf Point, MT 59201  406-653-1608
Home and Hospital births on the Rez
The Coyote midwife sits by the hole and waits....
mailto:[log in to unmask]  HTTP://www.midrivers.com/~jkuro
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-----Original Message-----
From: heather welford <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, May 21, 1998 12:31 PM
Subject: fussiness in breastfed baby


>
>Both situations seem to me to be best dealt with by explanation and a
>little patience and a lot of support . I'm afraid I can't agree with Jude
>when she suggests teaching the parents to give water, and sending them home
>with a bottle of formula. Of course it's the mother's choice to give
>formula if she feels she needs to, but we know (and the stats are there to
>prove it - eg the UK's Infant Feeding 1990 survey) that this is likely (and
>I mean *likely* ) to seriously  undermine her breastfeeding. I would be
>concerned that this one bottle is given to stop the baby's temporary
>distress and fussiness is recalled in two weeks, or three weeks, and next
>time the baby is hard to settle, or doesn't sleep as often as the mother(or
>her family) thinks he should, the experience is repeated...again and
>again...slippery slope?
>
>Heather
>
>Heather Welford Neil
>NCT bfc UK