Baby supplemented without moms consent - and died as a result - Page 3

[Beppie]

What a sad, sad story. And really, I just get so ANGRY at these hospitals and formula companies. ARGH!

[queencarr]

Although I think there are a lot of things that could have been done differently, I think it is important to remember this is an appropriate medical use of formula (use with preemies whose mothers can't/aren't producing enough milk, to increase nutrition of bm for preemies). Villifying all use of formula no matter what is not helpful to fixing this specific problem--which involves the lack of an appropriate sterile product for this particular high risk use. For many preemie moms, unfortified bm is simply not an option, whether due to the specific calorie needs of the baby or because it is very hard to pump, with no nipple stimulation and under stressful conditions, enough milk to meet the needs of a preemie to gain well. It is also, obviously, innappropriate to be fortifying without informing the mothers. But, I can see why it may not occur to the hospital; I mean, no one told me what type of IV nutrition my baby recieved. I suppose it could be a matter of where do you draw the line on giving every piece of information versus informed consent.

I think there is no excuse for powdered formula to be contaminated; there have to be ways to sterilize it, but it is probably too expensive or inconvenient as far as packaging is concerned. Liquid HMF would seem to be the answer as it is sterilized, but then the liquid volume is increased, so to control for volume, the amount of bm a baby could recieve might be decreased overall (to get 22 calorie/oz mix, for example, would require equal parts bm and 24 cal/oz liquid fortifier; if you needed a higher calorie milk, the amount of bm would be less than the amount of fortifier). Perhaps the solution would be an ultra concentrated liquid that is therefore able to be sterilized, but minimally increases the overall volume of bm.

[momoftworedheads]

This is just heartbreaking for both of these families, my heart goes out to them. I do not understand how a hospital could do something so wrong like not tell a Mom they are supplementing Breastmilk!

[BakerALM]

WOW so incredibly sad especially for the mama who was BFing! But why oh why am I not surprised!

[mrs*kewpie*pie]

iguess this serves as a heads up to us to make sure we know what our babies are getting and to make sure our friends and family are awaere of this issue too

a postpartum portion added to the birth plan may at least make the nicu aware that we are aware and do want to know what our babes are getting as well

in some cases there may not be an alternative to suplementation but at least to know that baby is being suplemmented and with what might make our options more transparent