a
>new study--recnetly published in JAMA--from Univ. of Washington showed that
>a small percentage of babies (1-2%, I think) who are discharged in less
>than 30 hours end up coming back to the hospital for dehydration, jaundice,
>or sepsis.  Of course, what the TV interviewer picked up on was that the
>breastfeeidng mothers were the ones whose babies came back!
______________________________
I just saw a mom for the first time with a baby 3 weeks old. She called
because she was feeding ebm in bottle only and it was getting tedious.  Baby
was taking 6 oz. every 3 hours (!) because she was advised to give him all
that he will take.

This situation began when baby was 1 week old and was crying a lot and
wanting to feed all of the time.  Parents rushed him (screaming) to
Children's Hospital one evening because they felt something was wrong.
Diagnosis: severe dehydration.  Baby was put on IVs with antibiotics and a
spinal tap was done.  Nothing serious was found and after 48 hours baby went
home with orders to feed as much as he would take, pumping and giving this
ebm. She was told that in the first week of life baby was getting "nothing"
from her breasts and was starving.

Mom and I were talking about the history of these 3 weeks and she got her
feeding and output records.  That first week of life baby was having 10+ wet
diapers every day, many stools, and gained 1 pound over birth weight. No one
asked her any of this information at the hospital.  She wondered how he
could be dehydrated if he was wetting so much and gaining so much.

He now weighs 3 # over birthweight. Mom is working toward a solution now,
but I wanted to add this story to the "dis-information" jungle we have out
there.  I'm sure *some* of the dehydration that the JAMA article was
reporting is a reaction to the WSJ article and the following TV coverage a
couple of years ago.

Now, you and I know that the emergency room of Children's Hospital wasn't
the desired health care setting for this baby. And I'm glad Mom sought help
elsewhere this time. But...

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee
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