Yow! Vernon Sikes has a biiig problem!! If he had an Email address a letter
would have been on its way already.
A question was raised about a babe with E. coli meningitis. The baby was 1 wk
old when this happened(born on Father's Day) and is still hospitalized for
it. The mom got all sorts of conflicting info, it came from the birth canal,
now the baby is lactose intolerant...because she asked about now providing
breastmilk, when the baby first became ill.
Question was from an expectant friend who wished this mom had nursed but was
unsuccessful in getting her to try it, and is breastfeeding her toddler, and
will the new baby- does breastfeeding offer protection against this sort of
thing? Same hosp had 2 cases of Strep B meningitis also the same few weeks.
Brainstorming got me this far...E.coli doesn't usually grow in a bf baby's
gut, usually Lactobacillus. If it was because the mom was stronger than the
baby and able to fight it off(she was told this) , wouldn't she if BF, pass
antibodies against it to the babe? Possibly a normal flora that she wouldn't
have antibodies against.
What about the sudden lactose intolerance? She thinks the baby is getting
soy, but something in me says some breastmilk would be helpful to this babe,
at the worst wouldn't hurt! Plus the mom would feel able to do something for
her baby. What a fiasco...Sorry, I needed to vent!!
                                 Georgeanne Mattise, Scranton, PA