Breastfeeding and Dehydration

When did breastfeeding become “alternative”?  When did it happen that there are two medical treatments for infants:  ones who are on formula and ones who bf, and that the doctors only give out info for the ones who are on formula?

This whole query came about Thursday afternoon when Conor threw up again almost 24 hours exactly after his first yak.  I called the doctor’s office again (because I AM a new mom!) to ask what we should do.  The triage nurse, Barbara, was very helpful and nice, but gave me a completely different regimen than Michael had given me.  This surprised me because Michael had been very stringent that I follow his rehydration advice to the letter.  Barbara encouraged me to just wait until the next feeding and then breastfeed him again.  I was surprised and asked about what the other nurse had said, and then she supposed I could start with water and then try breastfeeding again.  She wasn’t big at all on the whole Pedialyte thing.

I called Dave, of course.  To be honest, I was really thrown by the whole difference in advice.  Perhaps Barbara saw that Conor really wasn’t dehydrated and thus there wasn’t a real problem, but I felt thrown nonetheless.

So Dave and I did what any good 21^st century parents do:  we got on the web and searched around for information.  And here is what we found:

The Pedialyte regimen is Right and Good for formula fed babies.  When they have digestion problems, formula is really too rough on them.  And Pedialyte helps with getting liquids down.  However…

For breastfed babies who are sick, moms should just keep breastfeeding.  There is no need to switch to Pedialyte.  Kellymom.com does encourage mom’s to pump a bit before bfing a baby who is vomiting so the baby doesn’t gorge himself and make him/herself sick.  But even if the baby throws up soon after eating, breastmilk is so easily digested that nutrients do get through.  (Sears agrees, btw)

I hate to sound like some sort of breastfeeding supremacy boob nazi on a jihad for an alternative medicine crusade.  Dave and I do not think we harmed Conor at all by taking him off breastmilk; we just both believe it would have been better for him to have stayed on it (with all its nutrients) and let him continue to breastfeed on demand. 

It really caught me off guard that breastfeeding is still not integrated into the "normal" options for the doctors to consider and give appropriate advice.  I fully understand that feng shui, acupuncture and even yoga are a bit alternative, but I have to keep my guard up and search for additional medical advice for breastfeeding??  Is it really that “out there?”  Really????  I shouldn't be that surprised.  I'm one of the few people I know who takes quite seriously that we're supposed to eat 2-3 servings of fruit and 4+ servings of vegetables a day.  Again, that's the mainstream advice for being healthy and nobody does it. 

OK.  Working hard on a conference submission.  Still feeling queasy from the stomach bug.  And, most likely, from stress at the thought of going back to work and working towards tenure.  Bleah. 

10:48:07 AM