Nancy writes:

<<I recently had a generally very breastfeeding-supportive colleage make a
comment: If this baby had been formula fed, he would not have brain damage.
He
was correct as the exclusively breastfed baby was readmitted with a bili of 40
at 6 days of age.>>

Nancy, this is shocking!  Was the bili determined to be related solely to
breastfeeding -- or rather, the lack of it?  Showing my ignorance here, but in my
30+ years in maternal child health nursing I've never seen a bili of 40, not
even in an extremely dehydrated infant that was due to "lack of
breastfeeding."  There isn't/wasn't ANYTHING else going on? No sepsis?  No Lucy Driscoll
syndrome?  No anything else that could cause hyperbilirubinemia to this extreme?
 How many weeks gestation was this baby?

We HAVE to know what to do to prevent these kinds of tragedies.  I firmly
believe that no baby should ever be readmitted for dehydration (I'm assuming that
was the problem here), because all mothers should be taught the basic
parameters for knowing that breastfeeding is going well and what the warning signs
are.  And if the baby is "just a little early" then extra precautions should be
taken.

Oh Nancy, how scary.....

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, RLC
Wheaton, Illinois
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

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

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