I was talking with my friend on the phone today. Her little boy is sick. Really sick... he had been throwing up and having diarrhea on and off for awhile.
I had called (not knowing about her son) to catch up on how she was doing. But, we ended up talking about her boy. He is almost 6 months old.
At one point I heard background noise and I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was mixing up some Pedialyte to give to the baby. I asked if she was still nursing. She said yes. That she had been the whole time. She said she thought she would try it, see if the Pedialyte would be any better for him. She asked my opinion. I said... "well, its foreign substance, and he is already dealing with an upset stomach (for whatever reason)... I am pretty conservative... I usually just stick to breast milk. Its the most perfect complete form of nutrition, even in this situation." she responded "yeah.... I have been exclusively nursing him... he seems to be doing okay." I told her NOT to feel in adequate.... that somehow breast milk was lacking in something that needed to be supplemented with a man made substance." I told her she was doing a great job regardless and that she was a great mom.
Later today I ran by her house to drop off some food. She told me that she had called the doctor's office this morning (right before I called) to receive council regarding the baby. She said the nurse told her NOT to breastfeed and that he should have pedialyte... that breastmilk would upset his stomach more ..... She and I laughed, we figure the nurse thinks that cows milk and breastmilk are the same somehow. She thanked me for my timely call... saying that if I hadn't been there for support she may have started to doubt herself.
I tell you all this, not to toot my own horn.... but because it is a sad reminder of the fact that we as new mothers have times of doubt and that we need sound reassurance... but most of the time in our hours of need all we receive is mis-information.
http://www.kellymom.com/health/illness/baby-illness.html
The use of an oral re-hydration therapy such as Pedialyte is a sound recommendation for a formula-fed infant who is vomiting or who has diarrhea, but using this in place of breastmilk offers no benefit to the breastfed baby. Human milk is a natural fluid, unlike formula and other milk products, that again is easily and rapidly digested.
2 comments:
Aubrey got rotovirus at 14 months. The nurse on the hotline I call, about 4 times, told me not to give him "sippy cup liquids." "Don't worry," I said, "he's still nursing." Silence. "He won't drink from a cup." Silence. If only my mother had been able to do the same. Keep nusing those babies, it is what is best for them.
Awesome, Julia. Trust your body first. Even in the case of severe dehydration (sunken fontanelle, dry tears, smelly urine), oral rehydration solutions can be offered but their instructions say to offer them _with_ continued feeding and never instead of. Breastmilk is not the enemy, it's a natural antiviral/antibacterial and will clear the system of whatever bug this little baby had. It could very well by rotovirus, that's among the most common diarhea bugs.
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