Dear Anne,

How heartbreaking it must be for mother and baby to be denied breastfeeding
and for you to have to deal with this difficult situation.  I'm no expert in
swallowing difficulties, but am moved and upset to read how this mother/baby
pair are being denied the health and loving benefits of breastfeeding.  It
reminds me of the article Kathy D. posted about a BF mother in Italy lost her
rights as mother once her baby was hospitalized.  How can we do this to
mothers and babies?

It sounds as if this mom has plentiful+ milk and pumping as she did did not
empty her breast enough-could she pump more before offering her breast, work
on reducing supply with cabbage/herbals/homeopathics asap so she could at the
minimum offer her baby the comfort he knows at breast?  Could she sit him
upright, optimize latch, be worked with by you and speech therapist/OT to
find a way he can breastfeed?  Would a very slow flow from breast be
tolerable for him?  Perhaps oversupply created the more severe problem with
breastfeeding/aspiration as he got older?

Could he be fed breastmilk by controlled method?  Haberman? False nipple (no
hole) with very tiny hole put in?  Dropper feed, controlled?  Just so he gets
the breastmilk that probably saved his life in the first place?  Sounds like
the feedings he's getting are torturous and prolonged anyway, so the length
of feeding from above suggestions shouldn't be a concern.  How about
lactoengineering to allow some of the watery foremilk to be taken off and
using creamier hindmilk?

And who is addressing the emotional trauma caused this nursing couple,
especially the poor baby who has no idea why the most important relationship
in his world has been wrenched away?   Why, oh why, is breastfeeding always
the first thing taken away as if in doing so problems are solved?

Good luck, Anne, and tho not particularly scientific, hope my suggestions may
be of some help, or at least food for thought for all on the team working
with this baby and mother.  Please pardon my ranting, just too many examples
lately of breastfeeding abuse (which ultimately abuses women and children).

Barbara Latterner, BSN, RN, IBCLC
Brewster, NY

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