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From:	Jennifer Tow, IBCLC (jennifer.vegsource.com)
Subject:	Re: Gas, reflux, mucous in poop, and irritability
Date:	December 6, 2006 at 7:10 pm PST

In Reply to: Gas, reflux, mucous in poop, and irritability posted by Carla Fuquay on December 6, 2006 at 5:46 pm:

Lots of possibilities come to mind:

You sound as if you may very well have gut problems yourself--in
my experience moms who have leaky guts have babies with
allergies and tend toward either over or under-supply depending
upon how their hormones are affected. Have you considered the
possibility of a thyroid problem? Glucose instabilty is most often
linked to inefficient thyroid function and is also linked to stress/
cortisol and a nervous system in a constant sympathetic response
(fight or flight--one does not digest food in this state).

As to your food elimination diet: if you are eating the meat from
the cow, you have not fully eliminated the protein causing the
allergic reaction. You are also eating at least three of the most
common allergens--nuts, corn and peanuts. But, as I said before,
you could eliminate everything under the sun and it wouldn't
matter much unless you heal your own gut and inhibit the proteins
from reaching your baby. Even so, sinc eyou know the cow milk is
probloematic--you should eliminate that one. Further, are you
certain everything is really gluten-free? For example, rice dream
brand rice milk is not. While I do not believe food elimination,
except in cases of obvious allergy, is a solution, it is necessary
while treating the underlying problem. Do you eat eggs or soy?

Considering the fact that she was so fussy at birth, I would
STRONGLY urge you to find a cranio-sacral therapsit to treat her.
Look for someone with experience with babies, preferably who has
treated for bf difficulties. The Upledger Institute is in Palm Beach
Gardens FL and is one of the world training centers for cranio-
sacral therapy.

As to tongue-tie:
look at the info on Brian Palmer's website--download the frenum
presentaion:
http://www.brianpalmerdds.com/frenum.htm

I have no doubt that your baby's latch is inefficient--the question
is why?

Go to the Breastfeeding online link (http://
www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml) and look at the
latch videos.

It is likely that your baby never latched this deeply and would not
now that she thinks she will br overwhelmed if she does. What
happens is that babies feed inefficiently which leads to oversupply
which causes them to HAVE TO feed with a shallow latch to avoid
"drowning". It is a viscikous cycle.

What I usually do in these situations is evaluate latch--evaluate for
tongue-tie--you cannot get anything else to work if you ignore a
tongue-tie (inability to hold onto the breast, clicking, rubbing on
the nipples with the tongue, inability to elevate the tongue to the
palate and/or extend the tongue, high palate, inefficient feed are
all common with tt--theese babes often have poor digestions, b/c
proper tongue function initiates proper gut parastalsis), evaluate
for structural anomoly and evaluate birth (mediclaized births are
more likely to require structural work). Here is a great article about
this:
http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/LV/
LVDecJan04p126.html

I also address the mother's diet, nutritional profile. You do not say
if you take any meds or supplements or herbs, etc. Some moms
have excellent success in lowering suuply and reducing OAMER by
using magnesium (NaturalCalm) every day and taking vitex tincture
once per day.

In terms of management, many moms need to feed on only one
side per three-four feedings or even per 12 hours or more. n the
beginning you would want to pump, but after awhile your body
would adapt. There are two ways to pump--some moms only
pump to relieve engorgment, others use a pump and empty the
breast the first time, then find it is easier to maintain control of
supply.

Just remember, all of the management tricks, though, do not
address issues of structure, latch and your nutritional/homronal
profile. You have to deal with those as well.

How close are you to Fort Pearce? Also, isn't Miami only 2hours
away? I am guessing Ft Lauderdale is 3 hours? The three LC's I
would receommend are in those three cities.

Jennifer

• upledger