Author: Christie del Castillo-Hegyi MD

Co-Founder of the Fed is Best Foundation, Board-Certified Emergency Physician and Investigator of Breastfeeding Complications that Result in Infant Rehospitalization, Brain Injury and Disability

Exclusively Breastfed Newborns Have Double the Risk of Being Rehospitalized

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By Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D.

This week, the journal Academic Pediatrics, published a study conducted by the Newborn Weight Loss research group led by Drs. Valerie Flaherman and Ian Paul, which consisted of 143,889 healthy, term and near-term newborns born at the Baby-Friendly Northern California Kaiser Permanente hospital system from 2009-2013.[1] They included newborns who were discharged from their birth hospitalization without requirement of intensive care, which includes newborns who developed jaundice before discharge. They looked at the effects of mode of feeding, namely exclusive breastfeeding and exclusive formula feeding during the birth hospitalization on the rates of rehospitalization and number of outpatient follow-up visits. In addition, they looked at the effects of percent weight loss on the same outcomes.

Overall, 6.2% (1 in 16) of the healthy term newborns studied were readmitted; 4% were vaginally delivered and 2.2% were Cesarean delivered. This represents 8921 newborns over the five year period, almost 5 babies per day. They showed that exclusively breastfed newborns had slightly more than double the risk of being rehospitalized, even when adjusted for gestational age, birth weight and maternal race/ethnicity. Exclusively breastfed newborns also had significantly more (32% more) outpatient visits in the first 30 days after birth compared to exclusively formula-fed newborns. The leading cause of readmission was for hyperbilirubinemia or jaundice and need for inpatient phototherapy. The purpose of phototherapy is to reduce blood bilirubin levels in order to prevent or limit brain injury, a complication of insufficient feeding and dehydration commonly found in exclusively breastfed newborns before the onset of copious milk production (lactogenesis II).

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Clinicians’ Guide to Supporting Parents with Guilt About Breastfeeding Challenges

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Written by Dr. Ruth Ann Harpur, Clinical Psychologist

A systematic review of the scientific literature indicates that women who intend to breastfeed but who later feed their babies formula consistently report feelings of guilt, anger, worry, uncertainty, and a sense of failure despite the relief that introducing formula after experiencing difficulties with breastfeeding may bring (Lakshman, Ogilvie, & Ong, 2009). Recent research also indicates that this group of new mothers are at particular risk for postnatal depression (Borra et al., 2015).

Clinicians are uniquely placed to provide compassionate care at a vulnerable time for this group of parents. Their attitude and words can invoke a sense of shame, judgment, and failure, or they can inspire compassion, reassurance, and emotional healing.

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Please Help Us Protect Babies From Hunger and Thirst

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Dear Fed is Best Supporter,

We want to thank you for supporting the Fed is Best Foundation in its mission to support all mothers to feed their babies safely. We want to share with you the progress we have made in the year-and-a-half that we have been in existence.

  • We have nearly 450,000 Facebook followers world-wide and we are growing by 2,000 to 10,000 followers a week
  • The Fed is Best Foundation was recently featured in a cover story of TIME magazine called “The Goddess Myth.” Our stories, our work and the Fed is Best message have been covered by the media globally including ‪Forbes.com‬, the Atlantic, ‪Slate Magazine, People.com‬, BBC News, CBC in Canada, CBS News, the Washington Post, ABC News, CNN News, Romper, the Huffington Post to name a few.
  • Fed is Best Spokesperson Jillian Johnson and Fed is Best Co-Founder Dr. Christie del Castillo-Hegyi were interviewed on the Doctors Show. There Jillian shared the story of her son Landon’s tragic death from insufficient breast milk.
  • Dr. del Castillo-Hegyi presented her research on the Dangers of Insufficient Feeding of Breastfed Newborns at the First Coast Neonatal Symposium held by the University of Florida at Jacksonville.
  • Senior members of the Fed is Best Foundation met with top officials of the World Health Organization breastfeeding guidelines program, Dr. Nigel Rollins, Dr. Laurence Grummer-Strawn and Dr. Wilson Were to discuss our concerns about the high rates of brain- and life-threatening complications associated with the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. The events of this meeting was covered by Forbes.com
  • We have supported thousands of parents to safely feed their babies through breastfeeding, formula-feeding, combination feeding and tube-feeding, helping them prevent the feeding complications of jaundice, dehydration, hypoglycemia and failure to thrive through Facebook.
  • We are actively reaching out to major health organizations, health insurers and elected officials, with the help of our pro-‪bono‬ attorneys at Alston & Bird, to campaign for increased research, monitoring and public health education on infant feeding complications and for the protection of health professionals who provide supplementation and patient education on safe infant feeding practices.

Watch this short video of moms sharing how the Fed is Best Foundation helped them feed their babies safely and confidently.

We have accomplished all these things with a budget of less than $35,000 a year. The Co-Founders and volunteer supporters of the Fed is Best Foundation work tirelessly, every day of the week, day and night, to provide education, advocacy and support for all parents and all safe forms of infant feeding. We do it because we believe that all babies deserve to thrive no matter how they are fed and that all parents deserve safe, evidence-based, shame-free infant feeding support. Imagine what we can achieve with more?

This year we are asking our supporters to think of one thing they buy every month…a Netflix subscription, coffee at Starbucks, cable television, and consider donating this same amount every month to the Fed is Best Foundation. Whether it be $5 or $1000 a month, it will help us help parents to protect their babies from feeding complications that have become too common in today’s “Breast is Best” world. This will also help us advocate for national and global reforms in infant feeding standards to protect every baby from feeding complications.

We hope you will consider sharing this letter on your social media page. We thank you all for your continued support and we hope you have a joyful holiday season with your friends and family.

Sincerely,

Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, MD and Jody Segrave-Daly, RN, IBCLC
The Co-Founders of the Fed is Best Foundation

Donate to Fed is Best

 

Fed is Best Foundation
PO Box 241736, Little Rock, AR 72223

The Fed is Best Foundation’s Top Priority is Saving Babies’ Lives

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Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D., Co-Founder of the Fed is Best Foundation

In response to a letter written by 1000 Days director, Lucy Martinez-Sullivan and follow-up editorial from Kimberly Seals Allers, we wanted to take an opportunity to set the record straight.The mission of the Fed is Best Foundation is to protect infants from complications and injuries resulting from accidental starvation under currently promoted breastfeeding policies. In order to protect infant safety and ensure the patient and human rights of mothers and babies, we have built a non-profit organization committed to: (1) the study of exclusive breastfeeding complications that can result in brain injury and, in the most severe instances, death; and (2) raising public awareness to signs of infant hunger and the consequences that can result based on peer-reviewed research.

As part of our public health awareness commitment, the Fed is Best Foundation has developed and compiled extensive resources for parents and health professionals to promote safe breastfeeding and safe infant feeding policies based on evidence, including, the science of infant feeding, the caloric and fluid requirements of newborns and the caloric yield of exclusive breastfeeding. These core matters of infant feeding are shockingly absent from current breastfeeding curricula and protocols. Our Foundation is not against breastfeeding; it is for safe breastfeeding and close monitoring to prevent complications and injuries to infants reported in the medical literature, the media and by the thousands of mothers who have sent us their stories, which we receive each and every day. Continue reading →

Press Release: World Health Organization Revised Breastfeeding Guidelines Puts Babies at Risk Despite Pleas from Experts — Informing the Public “Not a Top Priority”

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By the Senior Advisory Board of the Fed is Best Foundation

A key recommendation of the 1989 World Health Organization Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding which guides the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is: “give infants no food or drink other than breast-milk, unless medically indicated.” This has led to serious complications from accidental starvation of babies, including dehydration, hyperbilirubinemia (jaundice) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) — known causes of infant brain injury and permanent disability. Last week, the WHO issued draft revised breastfeeding guidelines, failing to revise this recommendation. These guidelines define the standard of care for breastfeeding management in all healthcare facilities worldwide. Nearly 500 U.S. hospitals and birthing centers and thousands more worldwide that meet the criteria of the BFHI are certified as Baby-Friendly, adhering to the application of the WHO’s Ten Steps.

On Sept. 22, 2017, senior members of the Fed is Best Foundation, and guests including a neonatologist from a leading U.S. tertiary care hospital and a pediatric endocrinologist, Dr. Paul Thornton, M.D, from Cook Children’s Hospital Fort Worth, lead author of the Pediatric Endocrine Society’s newborn hypoglycemia guidelines, met via teleconference with top officials of the WHO Breastfeeding Program: Dr. Laurence Grummer-Strawn, Ph.D., Dr. Nigel Rollins, M.D. and Dr. Wilson Were, M.D. to express their concerns about the complications arising from the BFHI Ten Steps and to ask what, if any, monitoring, research, or public outreach the WHO has planned regarding the risks of accidental starvation of exclusively breastfed newborns. The Foundation members who attended were 1) Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, MD, Co-Founder, 2) Jody Segrave-Daly, RN, IBCLC, Co-Founder, 3) Julie Tibbets, JD, Partner at Alston & Bird, LLP, Pro-Bono Attorney for the Foundation, 4) Brian Symon, MD, Senior Advisor, and 5) Hillary Kuzdeba, MPH, former quality improvement program coordinator at a childrens hospital , managing infant feeding projects and Senior Advisor.

Emails confirming meeting between the WHO and the Fed is Best Foundation available here.

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