Please confirm that this is shockingly bad breastfeeding advice before I write to complain

[mawbroon]

DS is 19 months and has had around 12 bouts of vomiting in the last 24 hours. He had nothing but breastmilk through the night and had some water this morning along with a bit of rice cake because he hadn't vomited for a few hours. He started vomiting again at 4.30pm so I called NHS24 who sent us to the out of hours department at the hospital.
We saw a nurse practitioner there who examined ds and said he wasn't showing any signs of dehydration, which is good. Now, what she told me to do was to stop breastfeeding him as it just sits in the stomach and to give him water, orange juice or "something like Ribena" instead. She also gave me some rehydration sachets. Needless to say I am going to ignore her advice and continue offering ds frequent breastfeeds.
I am livid. I've been hanging around MN long enough to know that this is absolutely crap advice, isn't it? When I questioned her saying that I thought what she said about the milk in the tummy was indeed correct for cows milk but not breastmilk, she said that no, it applied to breastmilk too.
I am not being over the top to write and suggest that she gets some retraining, am I?

Ribena instead of breastmilk.... WTF??

Well what other kind of milk was it then Blue??

Horse milk????

Stick to crap advice if it makes you feel better.Doesn't make it good advice thoguh.

When my dd2 was in hospital with severe diarrhea and vomiting the nurses told me not to bf. I knew they were wrong, and fortunately the doctors agreed with me.

She was on a drip of saline solution, and because she was being bf, they didn't need to add potassium to the drip. So that was a good thing.

I remember one evening I was bfing her, and the nurse came in and squirted medicine straight into dd2's mouth, without even giving me a chance to get dd2 sat up. DD2 puked up immediately, medicine and milk. The nurse turned to me and said:
'and that's why you shouldn't be bfing her'!

I was so furious, but too shocked to say anything.

You will have to explain to me what your point is, moondog. I don't get it. WHy are you so agressive? I gave my son soya milk for 24 hours. Gastros can sometimes cause temporary lactose intolerance. Search it on the Internet if you are sceptical. It's quite common. And as far as I know, soya milk is not horse milk, and soya milk does not contain lactose. Any mamal milk has lactose, so you can't give goat milk or goat milk formula either. I'm only trying to be helpful here, please don't crucify me. There's no reason for your agressivity.

It's inaccurate therefore unhelpful Blue.

dd1 gets a lactose intolerence when she gets ill, sometimes lasts a couple of weeks. because she's on a special milk called nutrini she's alright (is gastrostomy fed)

dd2 is bf. i would carry on bf when she was ill unless it was proven she had become allergic to my milk. bf is definetly the best thing for babies imo.

Which bit is innacurate? That BM does contain lactose therefore babies can never develop temporary intolerence to it?

Cite relevant references pleae Blue,then I will be stisfied.

Blueberry, sometimes gastric illnesses can cause temporary lactose intolerance - you are right.

This can affect breastfed babies too.

In extreme cases, they do actually need a lactose-free milk such as soya milk while they recover - you are right.

I have no idea if your doctor was unncessarily hasty in taking your baby off breastmilk, and any suspension of breastfeeding runs the risk that the mum will not go back to bf (or becomes engorged and uncomfortable) or that the baby will refuse the soya milk. But you right, and I think moondog is wrong....or rather you are a bit righter than moondog

Hmm,well Tiktok has spoken therefore SO Be IT.
Would still like to see refs to research.

Apologies Blue.

I have two children and breasfeeding them both so I don't have time to scroll the web for what you would consider relevant sources.

However, this is a quote and link to some information about temporary lactose intolerence fould on the British Nutrition foundation,

"Secondary lactase deficiency is a transient state of lactase deficiency due to damage to the lining of the intestine where the lactase is produced. This damage can be caused by a severe bout of gastroenteritis, malnutrition, uncontrolled coeliac disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBS), cancer or toxins. Although lactose intolerance is mainly present in the adult population, temporary secondary lactose intolerance can occur in babies and young children following gastroenteritis or other forms of infection affecting the intestinal tract. The symptoms of secondary lactose intolerance normally disappear when the intestinal wall has recovered from the injury, normally within 2-4 weeks."

All I'm saying is that giving lactose free milk to DS seam to help him recover faster. That's all.

OK, all good!

Breastmilk does actively treat - and even prevents - D&V. We took our children travelling in Latin America when they were dd1 5, ds 3 and dd2 16months. First tummy bug - we all get and she got better a day ahead of the rest of us (but hadnt had it before us) 2nd bug she didnt get at all, when all the rest of us had runny bottoms. I put it down to the bf - as we had all drunk the same water, eaten the same veg and bread and beans.

Hope your ds is better soon MB. Worst advice I ever got was from HV when dd1 10 days old and already 10lb3oz. She took one look at her and said 'you'll never feed a big baby like that you'll need to give her a bottle too!'. She never had formula, I fed for a year and complained about the HV (who had had several complaints against her before and it wasnt the only time I complained either!!). Its ALWAYS worth flagging up poor bf advice IMO, cos it swont get better if the myths are perpetuated!

Would imagine extremely rare though.
(And that is still with apology intact btw)

WTF...complete bollox it is....Breastmilk is calssed as "clear" fluid, like water and is much easier digested then Formula and certianly loads better then water (as it also gives antibosies, etc....and nourishment as well as rehydration) and most certainly better then Orang Juice or any Juice would be whilest a child is sick!
Complain!

I think it is debatable whether a baby with a gastric infection would ever need to be taken off breastmilk, even with a diagnosis of temporary/secondary lactose intolerance, which is (apparently) very difficult to diagnose anyway....and to be honest, blueberry, I have never come across this treatment as a preventative measure, which is what was suggested to you (ie give soya at the start of an infection).

I have come across it very, very occasionally when a baby has been poorly for a couple of weeks after a gastric infection, and then the diagnosis is made and lactose-free milk is given to allow self-healing.

Maybe you are right when you say recovery was quick, but maybe recovery would have been just as quick without suspending bf.

I do think this is a judgement issue, and I don't think there are any hard and fast rules (apart from that in the absence of any sign of lactose intolerance, or any reason to suspect it, continuing to bf has to be the best way. I note that NICE is coming out with D&V guidance later this year, though.

Yes i just can't get my head aronud the fact that a tampered with milk from another species could ever be as good as species specific milk.

Where I gre up (PNG) coconut water was recommended treatment for d&v in weaned children.

I don't think treatment with soya is saying it is better, or as good as, MD....it's just that in very rare instances, a baby may be so poorly, that he needs calories without lactose, for a short time, while he gets better, and that's one way to give them.

As I say, I have never heard of it being given prophylactically, and there's enough concerns about soya, about soya formula, and about suspending bf, to make it something to be done with caution.....IMO.

Think of the soya milk not as milk, but as medication, moondog!

It's weird calling it milk anyway, seeing it is a plant.

Will try very hard TT.....

mawbroon - you should definitely complain and copy the letter in to the complaints manager of the PCT.

For those of you who have had good service from your GP or other health professional, may I suggest a letter from you too? People are so quick to complain nowadays (often rightly so) but it makes such a difference when someone takes the time to write a letter of praise. Especially in primary care.

Hope your DS is better soon, mawbroon.

Message withdrawn

Wow, we go for a nap and I come back to a heated discussion. Eeek, I always stay clear of those threads and now it's on mine.
DS now has diarrhoea the wee lamb but at least he hasn't been sick since this morning.
Re the lactose intolerence thing, this happened to ds's cousin after a particularly nasty bug last year. He is now on lactose free milk etc and it has made a huge difference, but that is an entirely different circumstance to what is going on here.
This is a record for the longest thread I have ever started! Most of them bomb!

Squaresausage - how are you doing? Wondered where fob had disappeared to!

Message withdrawn

If a breastfed baby developed a lactose intolerance, wouldn't it be worth giving a lactase supplement rather than stop breastfeeding and risk major upset for the baby and discomfort for mum. Mine goes mental if I try and avoid feeding him at the best of times, let alone when he's ill and needs to comfort.