Evelyn writes: This baby has been
totally breastfed since birth and at the Dr. visit in preparation for
surgery the mother was told that the baby will have to receive bottles
after the surgery because they had to know the exact amount of milk
taken in after surgery.  This mother has been trying to get her baby to
accept a bottle of expressed milk, but has not had much success.  She
told the nurse that her baby is refusing the bottles but they insist
that there is no other alternative.

There are always alternatives and they'll soon come up with one if the baby
won't take a bottle. They can begin feedings slowly by tube and as they
liberalize the amount the baby can take they can do test weights with a Baby Weigh
Scale. If the hospital doesn't have one the family can rent one. I work in a
Children's Hosp. with a cardiovascular ICU and we let these babies go to breast
as soon as they are able without making them bottle feed. If there are concerns
about baby taking too much, mom pumps first. Most often the problem is just
the opposite--oral aversion and poor intake by both bottle and breast. The
advantage for this baby is that he is well established at breast. Mom can try to
force him to take a bottle--but after stressful heart surgery there's no
guarantee that he'll continue to take one. I personally wouldn't even try. If this
baby won't take a bottle they'll have to let him breastfeed. And it can be done
safely. Putting this kind of pressure on a mother facing heart surgery seems
unconscionable.

Kathy Boggs, RN, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

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(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html