have a sick 8 month old and dr. advised me not to breastfeed her??!!!

[jessreichenbach]

My poor 8 month old who is exclusively breast fed has been fighting a double ear infection for 2 weeks. we went for her 10 re-check and even after 10 days of amoxicillin she still had infected ears, so they switched her to a diff antibiotic on friday. Sunday night she started throwing up....every where, her crib looked like something out of a horror movie and we went threw all of the sheets she and i owned along with most of our pajamas. i took her to the docs because it was going on 12 hours of not peeing, and 18-ish of throwing up and not eating. he told me she had a throat infection now as well as her ears and a nasty GI Virus thats been going around like wildfire here on top of it all. He told me to give her nothing but pedialite until 7:30 that night and then if she kept it down i could give her 1/2 strength soy formula ONLY. I told him we were exclusive bf'ers, he said to not breast feed her until after he talked with me today....this confused me i asked why he explained very quicky something about the protien being easier on her tummy, i was still uneasy about it. i talked to him today and he said now i could give her full strength soy formula ONLY. I again asked if i could start breast feeding her again, he said "no, hold off until after her re-check tomorrow, she'll be fine" This Pi$$ed me off. He sounded like he was irritated with me and blowing me off. In all honesty i fed her 2 diluted bottles of breastmilk last night and at 2 am i just gave in and let her have some "boob" and since then i've been breastfeeding her. We tease her alot and call her our "little addict" because she really just loves nursing so it was really hard to go as long as we did without nursing especially when she so badly needed comforting. I'm making sure her tummy isn't getting too full by limiting the amount of time she's latched on so that we're both content but she seems to be doing just fine? Any body have any ideas why a pediatrician would not want a mom to breastfeed her very sick baby for 48 hours?! and did i do the right thing by following my instincts? my thought was if soy milk was easier on her tummy then my body would make soy milk and not breast milk?!

[Barbarap]

I don't have anything to offer as to why the ped said not to breastfeed your LO, but good for you for going with your gut. IMO it can't be better for her to eat something she hasn't eaten EVER to keep her tummy at bay.

Good luck!

[jessreichenbach]

thats exactly what i thought too!!!

[Selene]

That sounds like a bunch of BS to me! I say continue to nurse. As far as I know, there is nothing that is "easier on the tummy" than BM for an infant. Plus, a sick baby needs your antibodies and white blood cells from BM more than ever. And a poor sick baby needs the comfort of nursing too. Honestly, I am really mad that your doctor told you not to BF without a better explanation than that. I would find a new doctor.
I hope your LO gets better quickly.

[Lanasmom]

Breastmilk is magic food! When will docs realize it is absolutely perfect for our LOs. That is how God made it! I hope your LO gets better. GL mama!

[jessreichenbach]

we go to a place where there are multiple dr's and practitioners and this is the first time we've ever seen this particular dr. i've alway had great luck with the rest of them, i think from here on when i schedual and appointment i'll make sure to ask who is on that day!!

[HeatherlovesCDs]

I voted keep nursing before even reading your post. You did the right thing. I have no idea why he would tell you that. I wouldn't have done it at all. Personally, at this point, I would probably start looking for a new one. That's just me though. I want a dr. who is going to take good care of my baby, but I also want someone very pro-bf'ing. It doesn't matter until there is something going on. Then, having a very pro-bf'ing ped makes a big difference. He doesn't sound that way. Like I said, that is just me though. I hope your baby feels better very soon.

[labibliofool]

My son is 9 months old and had a stomach bug a few weeks back... After an ear infection and has had (seemingly) another infection with a sore throat since. Sounds like we've been in the same boat, health-wise.

When my babe was pulling the Linda Blair routine I was advised not to nurse him just to keep him from vomiting everywhere. He couldn't regulate and would drink more milk than his sick stomach could keep down. I was told to give half an ounce of Pedialyte just to be sure he was staying hydrated and then if he kept that down after X hours (forget now) to try an ounce or two of expressed milk (again, portion control). That's what we did, and DH took a break in the middle of feeding DS the tiny bottle just to make sure it didn't come right up. I forget whether he vomited then or after the first time I put him to the breast again, but I know there was one more episode and we gave DS another 1/2 ounce of Pedialyte.

There's absolutely no way I would have introduced any kind of formula to my breastfed baby at a time when his system was already upset. What the heck kind of suggestion is that?! Especially at a time when my guy needed the antibodies and protection from breastmilk more than usual!

I hope your babe is feeling better soon, and that you don't have to see this crummy doc again.

[jessreichenbach]

"When my babe was pulling the Linda Blair routine I was advised not to nurse him just to keep him from vomiting everywhere. He couldn't regulate and would drink milk and his sick stomach just couldn't keep it down. I was told half an ounce of Pedialyte just to be sure he was staying hydrated and then if he kept that down after X hours (forget now) to try an ounce or two of expressed milk. "

This is pretty much exactly what i did!

[luckymum]

WORST advice IMHO

Nurse that baby as much as possible