Hi everyone,

A couple of months ago a neonatal nurse in a course I was teaching  told me
they had just started using an oral dextrose gel for neonatal hypoglycemia.

She was not too happy because it was not getting babies´blood sugar up, and
doses had to be repeated three or four times - and most babies ended up
with formula anyway.

I had not heard about this gel (new in Spain) and I was disturbed.... one
more easy, simple, anyone-can-do-it intervention. Instead of giving the
baby expressed colostrum. Might it affect the baby´s oral microbiome? Who
knows! Who cares! Will it interfere with breastfeeding? Noooo, it´s not
formula, they say.
My fear with interventions of any type is that we begin them because they
are apparently harmless, and then when they are ultimately proven not
harmless, there is no going back. Interventions like the one you propose
are easy and so everyone likes to implement them – it´s much easier than
supporting a mother and expressing colsotrum.
Have the manufacturers of this gel tried giving the baby colostrum FIRST,
before the gel? Is there a trial that compares both interventions, that
shows that hyploglycemia resolves with oral gel but NOT with expressed
colostrum? (I am supposing baby is having difficulties feeding on her own).

Until the gel is proven to be BETTER than expressed colostrum, I do not
think it should be advocated for as a correct intervention in units that
support breastfeeding (or anywhere, for that matter).

Two days ago, someone sent me a link to a post about this, and I had to
respond...
​
http://www.ourmilkyway.org/dextrose-oral-gel-for-neonatal-hypoglycemia/#comment-6493
​

​If I am mistaken and just being too upset by this, sorry... I´d love to
hear your opinions.

Hugs,
Kika​

-- 
Dra. Carmela Baeza
Médico de Familia
Consultora Certificada en Lactancia Materna IBCLC
www.centroraices.com
http://www.facebook.com/Consulta.Lactancia.Raices
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Centro-de-Atenci%C3%B3n-a-la-Familia-Ra%C3%ADces/274415189309122>

Autora de "Amar con los Brazos Abiertos"
http://www.ediciones-encuentro.es/libro/amar-con-los-brazos-abiertos.html

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