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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

come and be astounded by what the GP said to me this morning...

57 replies

bohemianbint · 04/02/2009 19:29

Have now been ill for about 8 weeks, had antibiotics for a chest infection 2 weeks ago and it's back again. I went to the docs for something else and she listened to my chest and decided to prescribe me more antibiotics to try to crack it. As she was writing out the prescription, I asked if the ABs were ok while I was still breastfeeding.

She pulled a face and said "are you still breastfeeding?! How old is he now?" I replied that he was five months.

As I was leaving (she had been really nice to me in general and just referred me for the counselling I wanted) she said "and stop breastfeeding now - naughty naughty!"

I should probably point out that she isn't English, I think she is Eastern European which might excuse the "naughty naughty" bit, perhaps...But isn't that astounding? It's lucky I'm me, and not someone who might think "hmm, Dr telling me to give up BF, maybe I should?"

DH reckons I should mention it to the docs but I feel a bit bad and have enough going on in my life without that as well, but blimey!

OP posts:

moondog · 04/02/2009 22:44

Good girl!

SnowlightMcKenzie · 04/02/2009 23:30

Well done!

Actually, I've had a thought. We could set up a MN bfing task force, and every time someone reports such nonsense from a hcp, the whole group of us could write a letter to their management requesting they update their training!

We could have a standard letter that everyone just prints off and sends!

Twinklemegan · 04/02/2009 23:33

What the hell?!

Jacksmama · 04/02/2009 23:35

Let's do it, that is a great idea!!!

Jacksmama · 04/02/2009 23:38

BB honey, sorry you're ill and having to deal with some ignorant cowbag of a Dr - but so glad you've got referred for counselling... you probably don't remember but I posted a few times on your thread about your horrible excuse for a family (I was the outraged one ), just wanted to give you another very-long-distance ((((((((HUG)))))))).

SamJamsmum · 05/02/2009 05:51

Bloody hell. This GP takes the biscuit.
'Naughty, Naughty!!!!!!!!!!' WTF

Well done for writing a letter. Having a standard letter for health professionals is a great idea as it's often at the time we least feel like writing them that they are most needed (ill, stressed, just out of hospital with a newborn etc).

pushkar · 05/02/2009 06:04

i would get yourself another doctor have you thought of trying nutritional instead?
you could see a nutritionalist look up british association of nutritionalists in google

we all got better using grape fruit seed extract one drop a day at night time, there are lots of natural anti biotics raw garlic is one of them.
you may wish to try this, doctors only use text books, i have little faith in them!!

mawbroon · 05/02/2009 08:07

Oh dear. Sadly I am not astounded when i hear this nonsense any more.

Definitely complain

LucyEllensmummy · 05/02/2009 08:27

boho - i wouldn't worry yourself about being a patronising old bag - Drs do it all the time!!! I think the training comment is good because it shows that you are not happy with the standard of the advice that you were given, but you are not actually being personal about it.

She really has NO excuse not being English, it is the WHO that have set the BF guidelines so surely it would be the same where she came from? Was she an older doctor?

Original poster

bohemianbint · 05/02/2009 10:44

Jacksmama - I love your posts! Thank you for the hug - very much needed this morning, I feel like crap and going back to the docs (she still hasn't sorted out a prescription) is the last thing I feel like.

Pushkar - that's a really good idea, I actually have a load of GSE in the cupboard left from when DS and I had thrush from BF. I'll go and take some now - it's worth a go, have been ill for 8 weeks now and am just about freaking sick of it.

I think Snowlight's idea is excellent. How owuld we go about it?

OP posts:

Mummyfor3 · 05/02/2009 12:28

Bohemianbint, I have just stumbled across this thread and am ed at this remark!!

I am a GP myself and much as it pains me to admit it, I certainly know a lot more about BFing now after having fed 3 DC with mixed success than I ever knew through my training.
I have only skimmed the thread but I totally agree with others: it is important that you practice is made aware of such short fallings and that training is provided when so obviously needed. Maybe rather than "complain" speak to the senior partner/other Dr you are comfortable with/ practice manager armed with some of the WHO information quoted above and ask the practice to discuss a BF policy at their next practice meeting?

I am sorry you are feeling rubbish, infections + antibiotics + subsequent thrush are horrible things to live with, all the while looking after DCs.

missingthemountains · 05/02/2009 20:39

This is shocking - I was stunned enough when I DS2 was in hospital when he was 4 months old and all the paediatricians got rather irate that I couldn't tell them exactly how much he'd had to drink that day - I think they expected me to have some sort of petrol gauge on my boob. The whole ward was plastered with pro-bf posters but the actual drs seemed to find it much easier to deal with if babies were ff.

Hope they do something in response to your complaint.

Helms · 05/02/2009 21:42

What a stupid thing to say!

Well done for writing. I will be really interested to hear what response you get.

picklesmama · 05/02/2009 22:02

Shocking, shocking.
Definitely complain - and I'd see someone else in future. You'd have to have your head in a cupboard to have missed the recommendations to breastfeed for 6 months exclusively - so what other medical developments has she missed?

Qally · 06/02/2009 02:46

An A & E paediatrician told me a few days ago that bf "only gave the baby antibodies, which aren't that vital at 12 weeks, and otherwise wasn't that different from formula."

I was just gobsmacked. This from a man who knew I was expressing all my DS' feeds, and was planning to continue till he was 6 months. Not a mother feeling crappy about formula feeding & in need of reassurance, but a mother whose son was getting exclusive bm and who intended to continue. The nurses were fab - really supportive, carefully refrigerated the milk I'd brought as "it's too precious to risk losing!" - he just seemed to think I was being PFB about it. And he's a flipping paediatrics registrar. Can he really not know?!

WinkyWinkola · 06/02/2009 08:23

Qally, the paed really said that to you? I think you should be sending him some information from the internet too.

Interesting that scientists still don't know 100% exactly what comprises breast milk so to make the claim that formula isn't that different is nonsensical.

Qally · 06/02/2009 11:27

I was astonished. I'd heard someone else on Mumsnet say a Paed said that to her, but she was ff so I figured he was trying to comfort her. And I know what's in it that's different that they DO know - in fact, this what I posted on the preg. forum:

"Would we knowingly substitute any other complete biological system of nourishment (blood for example) with one that contained no living cells, no tissue-specific growth enhancers, no immune system modulators, no inflammatory response inhibitors plus a massive dose of non-human protein? And then give it to our children for the first six months of life when their immune systems are at their most under-developed and sensitive and consider it a mystery when they become ill?

Issue 2445 of New Scientist magazine, 01 May 2004, page 32*

Formula feeding increases the risks of childhood leukaemia by a third, increases very significantly the risks of crohn's disease, diabetes, ceoliac disease, eczema, and asthma, and knocks a (disputed, but always statistically significant) number of IQ points off. Breastmilk has as many white blood cells in as blood - it's made up of living human tissue, just as blood is. Breastmilk is, literally, alive. 80% of the cells in it fight disease in some way - some kill cancer cells. Breastmilk has proteins that are uniquely well digested by the human gut, and fatty acids uniquely able to nurture brain and organ development. It's a pain-killer, a laxative, and a sedative. It decreases the risk of obesity and poor eyesight. It contains a naturally occurring opiod that apparently helps the baby bond - that's why a breastfed baby has that stoned, blissed out floppiness at the end of a satisfying feed. It contains growth hormones, as well as antibodies from every disease you ever had and every vaccination you ever received. Most startlingly of all, several studies have shown that if your baby catches a bug of some kind, and breastfeeds, their saliva transmits the info to the breast, and your immune system promptly manufactures the antibodies required and sends them right back via the milk."

If formula is the same, I'm a giraffe. How the hell a paed can say that... and the best thing? We were there because DS had a gastro bug causing himn to scream in pain. FF babies have a far higher rate of those.

chillybangbang · 06/02/2009 13:33

I've this week started work as a maternity support worker at a large teaching hospital with a maternity unit that handles 5000 births a year. First free lunchhour I had I went down to the library to have a look at what books and journals they had on lactation.

They had no lactation journals at all. They had two textbooks on breastfeeding which were published in 1997, neither of which had been taken out since early 2007. They had one copy of RCM's 'Successful Breastfeeding' and one other book on how Baby Friendly policy can be implemented in practice. It hadn't been taken out since 2006.

Most doctors know cack all about lactation and are not interested in learning more. As long as they are humble enough to admit this then hopefully they won't do too much harm to women and babies.

BTW - I immediately went and asked the librarian to order a copy of 'The Politics of Breastfeeding,' which I am told should be in next week! Hopefully I won't be the only person in the hospital who thinks it's worth reading!

idontbelieveit · 06/02/2009 13:44

truly terrible behaviour from a GP, i think you have to report her. I would have gone MENTAL!

WinkyWinkola · 06/02/2009 16:06

Qally, thanks for that information. It's stunning.

Original poster

bohemianbint · 04/03/2009 12:58

Am resurrecting this just to let you know what happened after I wrote a letter to raise the issue.

I just had a phone call from the GP who said that it "must have been a miscommunication" and that she wouldn't have said that as she breastfed her own child and is committed to promoting it.

But she did say it - and I'm not sure what she would have been trying to say that would come out like that.

OP posts:

tiktok · 04/03/2009 13:07

Perhaps when you heard 'naughty naughty', she actually said , 'how wonderful - continue for as long as you both want to, I think it's great'.

They sound quite similar, after all.

Original poster

bohemianbint · 04/03/2009 13:13

Honestly, I know English isn't her first language, but surely if she's making "miscommunications" like that she ought to be sent on a "communication" course if nothing else.

I guess that's the end of the matter, I don't know if the practice manager (who I addressed the letter to) will respond, or if that's it. I hate conflict, it makes me feel ill, but I feel a bit fobbed off.

OP posts:

Qally · 05/03/2009 05:44

It's really, really good that you complained. There won't be any more such "miscommunications" as a direct result.

foxytocin · 05/03/2009 06:50

i would be a pedant about it and insist for a reply in writing. they should have the courtesy of giving you one if nothing else. And It would be good to see if they are brave enough to put that response in writing too.

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