Dr. Christie del Castillo-Hegyi was invited to present her research on the brain- and life-threatening consequences of insufficient feeding of exclusively breastfed newborns at the First Coast Neonatal Symposium held by the Department of Neonatology at the University of Florida at Jacksonville on April 24, 2017. Here is the video of the lecture presented.
Note: A segment of the lecture was excluded due to copyright laws and will be posted once permission is granted to publish it.
The primary reason why newborns experience starvation-related complications every single day as a result of the Baby-Friendly protocol is because the complications associated with the protocol are hidden from mothers who seek to breastfeed. The primary objective of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is high exclusive breastfeeding at discharge. Unfortunately, because the rates of insufficient breast milk and delayed lactogenesis II are high among mothers, the necessary consequences of hospital policies that seek high EBF at discharge rates are higher starvation-related complications like hyperbilirubinemia, hypernatremia, dehydration and hypoglycemia, all of which can cause newborn brain injury and permanent disability. Below is an example of the way mothers are made to fear formula supplementation while the risks of NOT supplementing are hidden. This is a waiver form published on the California Department of Public Health Website to provide an example of a model formula waiver form for hospitals.
Hello, I just want to say thank you for making this information free and available on the internet. I was made aware of your website by my husband’s aunt, who is a pediatric nurse practitioner, about 6 weeks after I gave birth to my first child in December of 2016. Prior to giving birth my husband and I attended a birthing class that had a breastfeeding component. In hindsight, the class was completely inadequate and a waste of time. My labor was long as my son had flipped posterior at some point during the labor process, but I was able to have a vaginal birth with an epidural. I had decided to breastfeed exclusively and things went alright while in the hospital. The pediatrician who saw us while still in the hospital sent us home with some formula, just in case. I continued to breastfeed once we arrived home and my milk came in on day 4.
The Fed is Best Foundation is reaching its one-year anniversary July 11, 2017. One year ago, we became incorporated as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and have made tremendous strides in educating mothers and health professionals on safe infant feeding practices, particularly in the first days of life. We want to celebrate by sharing with you the progress we have made in our first year.
In one year, we increased our Facebook audience by over 258,000 and we are growing by 2000 to 10,000 followers every week.
The FedisBest.org has been viewed over 4 million times over the past year since its creation.
We have grown as an organization and currently have Fed is Best advocates, volunteers, nurses, physicians, other health professionals and attorneys that make up the core of the Fed is Best Foundation advocacy efforts. Fed is Best Foundation Advisors and Volunteers keep the foundation running with on-going advocacy, parent support, literature review, outreach to health organizations and production of educational material for parents and health professionals. Meet the Founders of the Fed is Best Foundation and our core advisors!
We have expanded our parent support network by opening up the Fed is Best Foundation Parent Support Group on Facebook and have added sister Fed is Best groups including Fed is Best U.K. and Fed is Best Canada with more groups on the way.
We raised awareness of the dangers of failure to thrive and reached an international audience with the following post from one of our advisors and advocates. “Accidentally starving my baby broke my heart, but made me want to help other moms.”
The Fed is Best Foundation and the #FedisBest movement has been covered by 86 different news articles across the globe including Forbes.com, the Washington Post, the BBC, CBS News, Slate Magazine, People.com, CNN, CBC News in Canada, Marie Claire, Grounded Parents, Romper, the New York Post and Huffington Post. We have been covered by Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Bosnian, Dutch, Indonesian and Polish news outlets. All these articles have been posted on the Fed is Best In the Media page.
We have published our key campaign letters and stories in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Our campaign has reached millions, particularly in the Spanish speaking world.
We reached millions of mothers and health professionals by making them aware of the dangers of the accidental starvation of newborns by sharing a blog written by Jillian Johnson, about the accidental death of her son Landon who was born in a Baby-Friendly hospital.
Jillian Johnson and Dr. Christie del Castillo-Hegyi were invited to an interview on the Doctors Show where we were able to tell our personal stories and send out a message to millions of viewers about the importance of knowing the signs of infant starvation and of timely supplementation to prevent newborn injury and death.
Dr. Christie del Castillo-Hegyi was invited to speak at the First Coast Neonatal Symposium for the University of Florida in Jacksonville where she spoke about the “Danger of Insufficient Breastfeeding” to a conference on neonatal health professionals .
Speaking at the First Coast Neonatal Symposium for the University of Florida, Jacksonville, April 24, 2017
We have expanded our Parent Resource Page by leaps and bounds making it a comprehensive parent and clinician guide for honest, evidence-based safe infant feeding education and support. It includes the Fed is Best Feeding Plan, a guide to preventing feeding complications in breastfed newborns, the Fed is Best weighing protocol, links to instructional videos on achieving a good breastfeeding latch, manual expression of breast milk, guides to knowing when a breastfed infant needs immediate evaluation, guides to supplementing breastfed newborns, formula feeding, power pumping and many more. If you have not visited it lately, please come and check out all the new resources we have added.
We have received thousands of accidental starvation stories and continue to post these stories on our FedisBest.org blog.
We have launched a letter writing campaign to reach all obstetric-gynecologists, family practitioners, midwives and other obstetric care providers to ask them to counsel their mothers on the importance prioritizing the health and safety of their newborn babies over exclusivity in breastfeeding.
We gained the amazing addition of Julie Tibbets, Attorney and Partner at Alston & Bird in Washington, DC who is helping us reach out to prominent health organizations to change the infant feeding guidelines and make them safe for every newborn and infant. Together, we will make national change in infant feeding so that no child should ever be injured by accidental starvation and that no mother be uninformed of the risks of insufficient feeding to her child.
We have launched our effort to reach hospital CEOs and health organizations to make them aware of safe-infant feeding and the dangers of accidental infant starvation from strict breastfeeding-only protocols.
I want to take this opportunity to highlight the tireless commitment of my Co-Founder, Jody Segrave-Daly, who lives the mission of the Fed is Best Foundation in her daily work as an Infant Feeding Specialist and Lactation Consultant. She uses her 30+ years of experience as a newborn nursery/NICU nurse and IBCLC and cares for moms and babies, especially those who have experienced feeding complications and accidental starvation on a weekly basis. Not only does she witness the suffering of the mothers and babies who experience these breastfeeding tragedies in her clinical work, but she also supports mothers through social media, email and our parent support group. I could not do this without her.
While we can’t estimate the number of babies whom we have saved from feeding complications by teaching their mothers the signs of hunger/feeding complications and by supporting their mothers to proudly and confidently supplement to protect their life and brain, we have gotten many messages from appreciative mothers who have thanked us for helping them keep their babies safely-fed, happy and thriving. We have received messages of gratitude for saving their babies’ lives and for saving them from needless suffering and hospitalization. Here are some of a few…
Alison’s baby was supplemented when she began to cry and show signs of hunger in the first days of life. She is currently exclusively breastfed.
“If I had not found the Fed Is Best Foundation’s information and private support group, I may not be holding my sweet baby today.” — From a Fed is Best Mom and Supporter
From Bethany: The Fed is Best Foundation Support Group saved my sanity and more importantly my daughter. I felt the pressure to breastfeed from the beginning and it did start out nicely and she was over her birth weight by the first week! But that was where it stopped. I had to go to the hospital with my little one and was so distraught over the idea of needing formula because it wasn’t “best!” The foundation support group helped me realize that what is best for each baby is what works for each child individually! In just over a month you can clearly see a difference ?
From Liz: I’m really grateful that Fed is Best supported my decision to formula feed my baby because that was what was best for us. I’m also glad for all the resources because I was able to help my friend, who had her baby 8 weeks after mine was born, to feel confident in her decision to combo-feed. Parenting is hard enough, it just makes sense to support parents rather than judge them.
From Jessica Hickey, MS, OTR/L: The light at the end of the tunnel was being referred to your website by my husband’s aunt. With tears streaming down my face I sat and watched one of your presentations on infant feeding on YouTube and finally found the information I had been seeking. There was nothing wrong with me, I just didn’t have enough milk for my baby like the 20-40% of other first time mothers. I was completely normal! I cried again when I read about what could have happened to my son had I chosen not to supplement so early on, or if I had waited, blindly believing all the incorrect information that I had read that all mothers have enough milk for their babies.
“Thanks to the Fed is Best Foundation, I had the support to pump for my preemie twins the moment they were born, for seven weeks, which was one week longer than my goal. They are now exclusively formula fed and thriving.” — A Fed is Best Mom
From Mandy Dukovan (I may be crying): It’s incredibly hard to put into words all the things this foundation has done for me over the last 10 months. When I happened to stumble upon FIB, I was a first time mom, who was struggling with so many different feelings and wasn’t sure who or where to turn. My son was 2 months at the time, and was just beginning to thrive, thanks to supplementing with formula. While I was so happy to see my baby finally gaining weight and thriving, I had so many other emotions I was struggling to sort out. I had immense feelings of guilt that I didn’t see the signs that my baby was hungry, constantly. I was embarrassed that I could look at his 1 month picture and now see that he was obviously malnourished, but how on earth did I miss this at the time? I was angry that I didn’t follow my instincts that something was wrong with him and why did I buy into all the terrible things I was told would happen if I gave him formula. I had this image in my head of all the horrible things that would happen to him, such as him being obese, if I gave him formula, at the same time missing the fact that he was underweight and not getting the nourishment and nutrients that he so desperately needed. And I worried that we would not have the kind of bond that babies who were EBF experienced with their mothers. I now know that our bond is so much stronger because we bottle fed him and no longer experienced the immense stress that came each time I tried to breast feed my baby. I got to a point where I dreaded even trying to breast feed him, but I was told that was the best thing I could do for my baby, so I kept going, at the expense of my baby’s health and my well-being. This foundation provided a place I could go and not feel alone and feel accepted. I honestly believed I was the only mother who had experienced what we went through because I only heard the stories about how amazing breast feeding was.
We want to thank you, our supporters, for all the messages, the stories, the love and encouragement you have given us. We promise to give you safe, honest, evidence-based infant feeding support that prioritizes the health and safety of your child. We want to change the standards of infant feeding so that they truly protect the future potential of every single child.
There are many ways you can support the mission of the Fed is Best Foundation. Please consider contributing in the following ways:
Thank you so much from the Founders of the Fed is Best Foundation!
Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D.
Jody Segrave-Daly, RN, IBCLC
親愛的醫生同僚以及家長們：
我叫Christie del Castillo-Hegyi，是一名美國急救醫師，之前是NIH研究院的科學家，在布朗大學時我曾做過關於新生兒腦損傷的研究。我也是患有神經功能疾病6歲孩子的母親。我寫這封信是因為我的孩子在剛出生不久就因為母乳餵養不足而成為新生兒黃疸、低血糖和嚴重脫水的受害者。作為一名準備的新媽媽，我學習了所有關於母乳餵養的指導知識去迎接我的第一個孩子。不幸的是，遵循了這些指導以及兒科醫師的意見，卻導致我的孩子經受了為期4天無奶水攝取而進入加護病房。隨後，他被診斷為多重神經發育障礙。作為一名醫師和科學家，我找到了一些同行評議期刊來解釋為何會出現這樣的情況。我發現有充分的證據可以顯示新生兒黃疸、脫水、低血糖和發育障礙之間的聯繫。我希望解釋這個聯繫怎麼可能對我的兒子和你們所照顧的許多其他孩子有重大的影響。
經過健康懷孕和正常陰道分娩，我的兒子以8磅11盎司的重量出生。然後就被直接放在我的胸口立即哺乳, 每3個小時需要哺乳20-30分鐘。我們在醫院待着的每一天都會接受兒科醫師和哺乳顧問的檢查。哺乳顧問誇兒子哺乳的嘴姿勢很好，孩子所用的尿布數量也在預期範圍內。孩子出生的第二天，就被查出患有黃疸病，經皮膽紅素值為8.9。我們出院48小時后做了定期複查，發現孩子的體重減少了5%。出院前，哺乳顧問告訴我們孩子飢餓時只需要對他僅進行母乳餵養。到家后，孩子開始變得煩躁，我給他餵奶的時間就越來越長，一直到深夜。 孩子甚至在喂完奶后還是啼哭，沒有睡覺。第二天早上，他停止了哭鬧，也安靜了下來。 孩子出生大約68個小時之後（第3天結束）再探訪兒科醫師。寶寶雖然尿濕的尿布數量在預期範圍內，但他的體重卻少了1磅5盎司，大約是他出生時體重的15%。那時，我們並沒有意識到也未被告知體重減少的百分比。我們也由於整晚努力去哺乳一個飢餓的嬰兒，已經精疲力盡，沒弄明白這樣的體重減少過度不正常。孩子得了黃疸病，兒科醫師卻沒測膽紅素。兒科醫師告訴我們可以選擇立即用配方奶餵養或者讓孩子撐到第4天或第5天有母奶通進。 因為太想用母乳餵養了，我們又經過了一天不成功的母乳餵養。第二天我們去看了哺乳顧問，她稱了一下乳量發現孩子連一滴奶也沒得喝。當我用機器與及手按來抽奶時，我才意識到我的乳房根本沒有奶水。我覺悟到我按照母乳專家的指導使孩子受了4天挨餓的折磨，也原來他2天不停餵奶是奶水不足的跡象。隨後，我們就用了配方奶，孩子終於睡著了。三個小時之後，我們發現他反應有點遲鈍。我就強行往他嘴裡餵奶，這讓他更加警覺了，但隨後他就開始亂抓。我們趕快把他送到了急診室。經過檢查，他的葡萄糖值不正常（50 mg/dL），嚴重脫水，也叫高鈉血症（157 mEq/L），重度黃疸（膽紅素24 mg/dL）。我們再次被告知孩子並無大礙，但是由於我一直在做新生兒腦損傷研究，知道腦細胞會因為低血糖和嚴重脫水而在極短的時間內死亡。我當時非常希望孩子沒事兒，但卻不敢完全相信醫院關於孩子一切正常的檢查結論。
健康的新生兒直接放在胸口肌膚接觸，立即哺乳
