I just had to share this info with my 1200 dear friends:) I spoke to a class
of second year medical students yesterday and had a wonderful experience-
this is the 4th year in a row. Anyway, I started off by asking how many had
been breastfed and their intructor dropped his jaw when almost ALL of them
raised their hands. More than 3/4ths!!!! Then I asked how many had seen
Chicago Hope last week. Only a few raised their hands, so I said, "OH, I'm
soooo glad to hear that you don't gain your medical education from
fictionalized drama on television (they laughed) and then I asked what
happened on the show and one student said, "It make BF look bad, there was a
dehydrated breastfed baby." I said, "it was awful, it was even worse- the
baby died! It is truly unfortunate that some breastfed babies die and it is
also unfortunate that some bottle fed babies die from feeding mismanagement
also." I shared the story of a patient of mine who had a baby who was
bottlefeeding poorly in the hospital, so she was told to feed the baby at
least one ounce every three hours.  When she came in for a 2 week check-up
(at 4 weeks), baby was dehydrated and 1/2# below birthweight. She had been
limiting feeds to 1 ounce every three hours and giving him Karo and water
for constipation. Then I said- it is always important to monitor a new
babies feeding. Their faces lit up in understanding. Our "nursing mother"
had a three year old who said, "no" to nursing in front of a crowd, but
those students will long remember that 3 year old who was cute and bright
and still nursing.  ANyway, it is nice to have a good experience every once
in a while.  Cathy Liles