Here is my (unsatisfying) update on the baby I wrote about earlier.  He was 
19 days old, and struggled to breathe *only* while at the breast suckling.  
Several excellent suggestions were made; many from Lactnetters:  check for 
submucosal cleft, velopharyngeal insufficiency, tracheomalacia, choanal 
atresia, narrow nasal passages.

I sent two different reports to the pediatrician's office, a total of four 
*detailed* pages, politely but firmly asking that a referral to a pediatric 
ENT be made so that someone can stick a tube or a light up this kid's nose 
and find out what is happening.

Mom and Babe were seen in the office twice, by two different pediatricians.  
No #1 had my first report; #2 had both reports.  #2 is considered very 
BF-friendly; #2 was seen by Yours Truly at the hospital, when she was a 
lactating mother of her own newborn (now about 2 years old..

Sounds good right?  But both docs tell Mom:  since baby can drink from a 
bottle or nipple-shielded-breast, there is no need to refer to a pediatric 
ENT.

But here is the part that just floors me.

While the baby was in the office for the second visit, he just-so-happened 
to vomit up some yellow bile.  SO:  they send the family off to the local 
emergency room.  The baby (now about 26 days old) is "slightly dehydrated" 
so they give him intravenous fluids (an agonizing experience), and all sorts 
of GI tests and probes.

Baby is fine.  He apparently, um, just threw up.  Mom and Dad are a wreck, 
having watched their son go through these procedures.

Apparently throwing up gives you a Free Pass to specialist''s care .... but 
an IBCLC, who sends four pages of evidence-based-and-cited material, to a 
pediatric office that historically is BF friendly, describing a baby who 
CANNOT BREATHE PROPERLY while doing one of nature's most basic survival 
skills, is blown off.

The mother, for whom going *back* to the pediatrician's office to further 
debate this issue was a major (personal) milestone, is blown off.

This poor baby, who no doubt wanted to nurse after having been stuck and 
poked at the ER, couldn't even have the satisfaction of a nice, long, 
unstressful, cozy, soothing breastfeeding, is even blown off.

Sheesh.


Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA

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