The Shillings wrote:

>   A worried mother of a 4
> month old called (she lives 1700 miles away in my old hometown).  Her
> baby
> boy has only pooped on his own, three times in the last six weeks.
> She has
> been told to try karo, introduce solids, and use suppositories to
> encourage
> bowel movements.  Dr. suspects Hirschsprung Disease and told her not
> to
> breastfeed baby for 24 hours before scheduled Barium enema.

Couldn't the lack of bowel movements be due to the nature of the baby?
We all know about completely breastfed, infrequent poopers.  My own
babies would regularly go 10-12 days after 6 weeks of age.  What else is
going on to make the doc suspect Hirschsprung's?

Whe my first-born (now 7) was 3 months old, he went his first week with
no bowel movement.  Being an inexperienced mother, I took him to the
weekend, military clinic.  The doctor there that weekend was extremely
kind and well meaning (and very concerned about him--I could see it in
her face) but had no clue about breastfed babies.  She x-rayed him, did
a rectal exam, etc (all useless, of course) and determined he probably
had Hirschsprung's.  She didn't tell me this, of course, but I read his
chart on the way home.

She made an emergency call to the Ft. Ord pediatrician (Army Colonel)
who said to bring him in the next day.  We did, he took one look at him
and sent us next door to see his wife who happened to be the Army
hospital's lactation consultant and nurse practitioner.  We had a
reassuring visit with her and there was never any other mention of
Hirschsprung's.

So thanks to Dr. and Mrs Sinnhuber, where ever they may be, because they
both had a clue about breastfed babies, where I certainly had none, and
they saved my baby from more uncomfortable procedures.

Kathy
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Kathy Koch, BSEd, IBCLC
Mom to Andrew, Abigail and Molly
LLL Leader, AAPL/OL for VA and MD/DE/DC
[log in to unmask]          Great Mills, MD, USA

"Within the child lies the fate of the future."   Maria Montessori
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