I have some rants and raves I'd like to share. First the good stuff. I saw
a Mom a couple weeks ago, first in the hospital. I noticed the baby had a
somewhat short frenulum and talked to her about what to watch for. She came
back to see me because she had pretty sore nipples. Her baby was gaining
tons of weight and only breastfeeding. I called him Mr. Mellow and she
replied, "Oh, we almost never let him cry, we just feed him as soon as we
see his cues." She had arrived wearing him in a sling (99.9% of the outpt's
I see arrive in strollers or car seats). He was creasing her nipple and I
suggested she get him clipped. Although her pedi said he didn't think it
would make any difference, he did refer her. The ENT said "I just do what
the LC recommends" (where can I get that guy cloned?) They clipped and the
soreness improved immediately and had totally resolved when I spoke to her.
It was so refreshing to work with a Mom so in tune with her baby, and she
really deserved for the clipping to "work like magic."
On the rant side, I had one Mom who came in for low milk supply. Actually
her supply was fine, but the baby wouldn't work as hard as he needed to. I
taught her breast compression and he was able to get enough at the breast.
Sounds like a success story doesn't it? At one point I asked if she was
surprised the baby hadn't gained weight and she said, "No, because I never
really believed a baby could survive on something that comes out of your
body like that." That was one of those moments where I had to pick my jaw
up off the ground. Where do these people come from? Then when I called to
follow up she had started formula (big surprise there - not!), but was still
breastfeeding some. I asked if the breast compression helped and she said
"Yes, but it was really too much work, so I'm just pumping and bottlefeeding
now for the most part." At that point I just said "Okay, is there anything
else I can do for you?"
Unfortunately, I had more rants than raves this week. I also followed up on
a Mom who had come in for nipple pain. I suspected Raynaud's, but wasn't
completely sure. But she was worried she was going to lose her milk supply
because she didn't think he was eating well enough. His weight was fine,
milk supply was fine. But after she saw me she started giving formula
because she was still worried he wasn't getting enough. Wonder of wonders,
her milk supply did go down and so she had to give more formula and it went
down even more. Gosh, isn't it just so puzzling how that works? (Can you
hear my sarcasm?) I said I think you are basically weaning and you need to
decide if you want to breastfeed or wean, because if you keep doing what
you're doing you will wean. She was going to think about it and I haven't
heard from her.
Sometimes being a Lactation Consultant is like going to garage sales, you
have to look at a lot of junk to occasionally find the treasure.
Thanks for listening.
Andrea Tran RN, IBCLC
Erie, Colorado
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
