Breast Milk - Please advise

Hi Anitha,

Incidentally, fever does not come overnight and symptoms underlying are passed on to LO much before you even realise. I had stomach upset and viral fever some months back, LO got the stomach upset and no fever. I still did BF and it was LO still preferred BF even though I was hot. Paed prescribed medicines and I was fine the same day.

We these days have options to put LO's on formula or not feed them in fever, but think how our grandmoms managed only on BF's be it fever, be it rain, be it anything. Yes as you mentioned for preemies you need to take extra care.

Hi Padmini,

You can either bathe Hayagreev yourself in a bath tub, in case you are not confident else monitor what the massage lady is doing and advice her accordingly. I did stand out of the bathroom and checked what the massage lady did and once I was confident, I could bathe LO, I asked her not to come after 3 months.

Hi Aishu,

I was in a similar situation for a month, when mom was @ home pampering grandchild. After one month, I was left to myself and could manage better with no one around.

 

Correct Lee..
Becoz, in NICU they warned us not to bring any sick patients to our home, all care takers at home should be H1N1 vaccinated, and mother to be more careful since bf ing.. These are all tips given to me.

Always my mom will restrict my food telling - if you eat this your baby may fall sick.. so dont eat

I think my mom thinks that if I eat something which may hurt LO tummy and he may fall sick which not good since he is a preemie

 

Anitha, could you please ask your doctor aunty for the studies that say a child should not be breastfed when the mom is sick. I believe both Poonam and I have repeatedly posted the studies which support what we say. If you or your doctor has to say something to the contrary, it would help us see what she is basing her opinions on - after all hers is also opinion, it is not like as if she did those studies herself.
You should continue to give your baby breastmilk, especially so because he is a preemie. Do note that formula powder is not sterilised and feeding formula to a preemie comes fraught with deadlier diseases like sakazakii infection than just a fever.

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/en/qa2.pdf

 

Tikka,

Can I ask you a simple question? Are you a medical professional? You cannot always prove that you are right !!

Doctors who say YES for bf ing(when sick) are not a great doctor and docs who say no is not a bad doctor.

I think you misunderstood what am trying to say here. It all depends upon situation when we can do right things on right time for our babies.

Note - Please lets stop discussing this further.

 

Anitha, I am a journalist, a researcher with a background in health communication, breastfed a preemie, a breastfeeding advocate/activist/supporter and I am about to start my training to be a lactation consultant. Yes, so I do know enough about breastfeeding that kept me exclusively breastfeeding my child for 6 months and weaning him only when he was ready to be weaned. I am learning more every day and I do think I take the effort to give out information that is peer reviewed and authenticated. If you think to the contrary could you please provide me the links of those threads where I gave out wrong information.
I have breastfed my child through both infectious and non-infectious diseases/issues, according to my paediatrician's advice and in accordance with the Infant and Young Child Feeding practices. IYCF is the official policy document of American Association of Paediatrics. So if your paediatrician is giving information that is contrary to the official policies, you should ask her "why?" Instead, you are not only not deciding to do it with your child, you are actively asking mothers here to not breastfeed when they are unwell. That is harmful to the health of another mom's child. I will stop as soon as you stop making those assertions or provide me with the link that says breastfeeding a child when mom is unwell is harmful. I will then back off.

 

Tikka,

I do understand you know few more things. Thanks & Great. Sorry to say this. I think being a jounalist you cannot always prove only your side is correct & ask my aunty who is a doctor to go back and study science and ask her to show proof and all. Also, I have seen you aruging in many threads and also expressing yourself to be correct always which is not good.

IL is a forum and it has given equal rights to all ladies over here to share their exp/thoughts/ideas/etc etc. So when a person gives their own ideas/views you cannot come into picture and tell that you know science and stuff and cannot argue like this to prove your point(which is obsoultely not good). Hope you can understand since you are a senior mommy.,

Now also am telling that I didnt tell bf ing is NO GOOD when we are sick but all am saying is- it depends on situations. Say suppose a mom is having problem itself with her breasts and sick tell me whether she can still bf her LO? So its all based on what sickness she had.. Adding, my aunty who is a well known doctor in NY since so many years also told - WE CAN BF KID ONLY WHEN WE HAVE FEW DISEASES LIKE I HAVE MENTIONED IN EARLIER THREADS AND ASKED ME TO ENQUIRE THAT ALSO BEFORE I DO IT.

My aunty is a person who is a STRONG SUPPORTER of bf ing and she has asked me to give fresh milk always to a preemie and not even frozen/old milk at any cost. Being in that attitude you cannot ask her to read some materials.

Am not a person here to talk bf ing vs formula feeding and all. I always have a backup even when am sick will give my baby my frozen milk which is also a BM far bettter than formula. So I think thread went into some misunderstanding and since you were proving yourself correct I couldn't stop me from writing this !!!

Thanks for understanding. Please do give your own comments with all proofs but never talk or discuss about others views at any cost. In IL its not like to discuss you are right/you are wrong/ I know science/ etc etc. Others may feel so embarassed if you do so.

 

Hi

I just wanted to add in here that why asking a doc to update herself on evolving studies and research is misconstrued to be demeaning or insulting. What is wrong with constant learning ? Medical science is constantly changing and its important for a doc to take time to stay update which does not happen always.

Also on a topic like Breastfeeding its one thing to be supportive and another to be a researcher, lactation activist, and also many times a lactation consultant will have more info / knowledge on feeding techniques, handling different issues and situations, different practices for different babies. These are people who focus on breastfeeding as a passion which becomes a career and much more informed and capable on looking at each woman and baby specifically and working with them. Medical practitioners / paediatricians look up to them for working with lactating mothers having issues.

I am not saying this just to support Tikka but to establish that making a statement in a public forum also calls for positive criticism. Also when wrong information is given to other women influencing them on something that is of primary concern makes people who have authentic info to jump in and correct the information and yeah we do not make it a personal attack , only the info. Why do we give evidence and research proof because that makes all the difference between actual truth and myths / hear say.

We are just concerned about the issue , so dont take this personally or that we are questioning your aunt's credentials.

We are all learning and evolving , so should a doc with any number of years of exp. Having an open mind to info is beneficial to all as these are lives we are influencing.

Cheers
Deepa

 

Anitha, your words not mine. I never asked your aunt to go back and study science. You need to realise something here - shouting apart you are not making a point. Yes, science constantly evolves and doctors need to update themselves. When a physician is in a busy practice, she may not do that. That is the only point in asking a physician to provide the research.
We constantly talk to our paed about what the latest in Asthma treatment is from GINA, she asks us for our links and study and we email them to her. She discusses them with paediatric pulmonologists and talks to us again about whether a certain treatment protocol is valid for us. And If we dont think our son needs such strong medication, we go back to her and ask her for another way to deal with the issue. Most doctors I know work this way.

Knowing how well you know about IL, you probably need to understand that you have a responsibility here too to put information that is accurate. What if a mother were to take your advice and feeds formula when she is unwell. Do you know there is an outbreak of Sakazakii happening currently in the US and formula makers were quickly recalling bottles of their powder formula? What if that information had not percolated to the particular mom and she uses that formula for her child? What if that child were to fall ill? I have also seen you post Anitha, and I wont drag that into picture here. This particular information you are handing out is inaccurate and poster after poster has given their links to say why it is inaccurate. Could you please back up what you say with facts, not just hearsay. I dont think IL is a gossip kind of forum.

Sigh, moms can breastfeed when they have mastitis and breast abscess, if that is what you mean. Yes. The current recommendation is that moms who are HIV positive can also breastfeed; people have been lobbying for a change in policy documents that says HIV positive moms should not breastfeed. The only time a mom cant breastfeed is when she is on medication that will harm the child. Not high fevers. So please ask your aunty to mention those illnesses when mom cant breastfeed.

Again, your words not mine. I dont personally know your aunt from Eve and to me the information she is giving you is not current science. Do your own research, ask her for explanation, it should be easy to get information from her given she is your aunt. I don't claim anything, only back up what I write here with peer reviewed research. If you can I will appreciate it. It could educate me too.
If not, please do refrain from repeating hear say that can harm the breastfeeding relationship of a mother with her child with inaccurate information. Thank you.

 

Just to add my own experience here...

When my baby was about 7 days old, I got something like mastitis.. even before I checked with my gynaec, My mom stopped me from BFing telling that 'the milk that has been deposited would have gone spoilt and I am not supposed to feed her with that milk. She said I need to express the milk out and give her only after that...

But that was a period when I had no pump, had low supply and I was not even able to touch my breast... It was Deepa (dubbi) who insisted me to feed her even at that time, actually to feed even more often... My Mom was totally upset.. She checked this with some other doctors over phone.. they do have lots of experience and yes they have cured so many worst diseases and we still go them for everything...The doctor said the same 'I am not supposed to feed baby'.. It is no fault of them, they were said like that on those days..

But I explained her in a polite way that the science has evolved and the doctor may not have updated herself as she is not into this field particularly...

You know what, when I went to my gynaec the next day, she was very happy that I am feeding her with the mastitis side and asked me continue it and said this will help me from it becoming still more worse...

So, I am really happy to be here... and I would have gone wrong and would have ended up with something really bad if I have not got the right info from IL/ILites.

If suppose I had gone wrong after seeing some wrong info, and that has created some bad effects to my health,
first I can not claim the person who has given the information as it is a open forum..
second, I will never come back to IL for any of my problems and its reputation is going to go down...

Vidyaa

 

Anitha,

I may not be the right person to debate, I think its better to take it with a pinch of salt. Do not mix two opinions in case you are confident with what your doctor aunt is saying then go with it (knowing that Rithik is a preemie), do not ask for info on the same query as it will just create confusion for you itself.

I mentioned earlier too do alot of reading yourself, you will get to know what is right and wrong. For me any info is gr8 but I figure out what's best for my child. Mommies are pouring out their experience in IL taking time, I am sure there is some amount of understanding which goes into getting the message right. It is so that you take extra precaution and make your life easier rather than getting messed up. In case you are in the R & D mode then go ahead and figure out, its not as simple as it takes.

Atleast for me, I have being alarmed on many occassions and knowing that I am a first time mom, I know that mistakes can happen but I am open to suggestions. IL is the best place, I feel, ppl from all over US, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore share their experiences, you just need to pick up the best and go with it no forces. Also you need to decide what's best for your child not the forum so there is no blame game.

I think its better not to get into any arguments now that you have just begun the journey, just absorb as much info as you can.