I just got off the phone with a very distraught mom who's been told her baby
may have galactosemia and had to wean last Fri.  The baby was seen by a
geneticist who drew blood for testing by venipuncture as well as redoing the
PKU test.  She was told it would take at least 2 wks for test results tho
liver function test results would be available in a couple of days now
(testing done on Fri).  I read in LLL Answer Book that false pos tests can
occur for galactosemia if blood is exposed to heat-baby is 2 wks old today.

 Besides poss test error, my question is why so long to obtain results? ( Ans
Book suggests mom try to get priority on testing so less time spent with baby
on formula if results are negative.)  What about BF if baby has Duarte
galactosemia?  I've done a search in Archives but I'm anxious for definitve
answers as is mom.  Poor thing, baby wouldn't latch well first several days,
she fingwer fed, I had one of those BFing fairy visits and baby breastfed
readily and eagerly, and mom wanted nothing more than to BF and do so long
term, and now this..sometime life ain't fair.

Hoping end results are good.  (I did listen to mom, offer support and
suggested she skin to skin, bottle feed next to breast and switch sides
(arms)-she's pumping and freezing her milk; willing to donate if it turns out
she can't BF; my heart goes out to her, I can't imagine being told I couldn't
BF.)

Thanks for any and all answers; would espec like to hear from docs re ways to
hurry up lab processing.

Barbara Latterner, BSN, RN, IBCLC
Brewster, NY

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