Warning about giving SimplyThick to newborns

[Palooka]

I know a couple premies who received milk with this thickener in the hospital. They are fine, but just passing on the information.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/0...s/?ref=science

[songbird516]

It boggles my mind that these kinds of additives are given to babies with little to no safety testing. It's very very sad. Why on earth would you add xantham gum to babies'd food?!! It is known to interfere with digestion, not help it! Ugh it makes me SO angry.

[AnimalHouse]

I feel so bad for those families. I shared this on my FB feed.

[Palooka]

Originally Posted by songbird516 It boggles my mind that these kinds of additives are given to babies with little to no safety testing. It's very very sad. Why on earth would you add xantham gum to babies'd food?!! It is known to interfere with digestion, not help it! Ugh it makes me SO angry.

It sounds like the hospitals ask a speech language pathologist to determine if the baby is having difficulty swallowing, then based on that assessment they thicken the milk (including breastmilk) to make it easier for the baby to swallow and reduce the risk of aspiration.

...Now that I type that it seems sort of ludicrous that a speech language pathologist is doing a feeding assessment for a premature newborn. Doesn't that seem way out of their filed of expertise? (Not picking on the SLP, just asking if they are really adequately trained for this particular thing). And why is thickener automatically the best solution? Could how the baby eats (positioning, volume, frequency, etc.) be a solution?

[MDever]

Our last LO had a swallow study at University of Maryland and it was an SLP that observed and interpreted the test. I think in that setting it is normally them. I agree though about exploring other options. Unfortunately they often have to find the thing that is the least easy for parents to screw up. My BFF worked in special care nursery for years and some of these folks are really ill equiped to maage caring for a typical infant let alone one with any sort of special needs.

[shortcake2386]

Originally Posted by MDever Our last LO had a swallow study at University of Maryland and it was an SLP that observed and interpreted the test. I think in that setting it is normally them. I agree though about exploring other options. Unfortunately they often have to find the thing that is the least easy for parents to screw up. My BFF worked in special care nursery for years and some of these folks are really ill equiped to maage caring for a typical infant let alone one with any sort of special needs.

Yeah a SLP did Kenna's swallow study. At that point our children's hospital had already stopped using simply thick so we did have to utilize other options.

[Palooka]

Originally Posted by MDever Our last LO had a swallow study at University of Maryland and it was an SLP that observed and interpreted the test. I think in that setting it is normally them. I agree though about exploring other options. Unfortunately they often have to find the thing that is the least easy for parents to screw up. My BFF worked in special care nursery for years and some of these folks are really ill equiped to maage caring for a typical infant let alone one with any sort of special needs.

That's a good point. A pediatric ER nurse once told me of a mom who brought in her diabetic infant because he was not responsive. It turns out the mom had been giving him insulin shots without ever checking his blood sugar. She didn't even know how to use the blood sugar monitor, she was just giving him insulin after every bottle. It's amazing that baby didn't die. Of course my sister is an adult and used to do the same thing: slice of cake, shot of insulin, slice of pie, shot of insulin...

Anyway, simpler is usually safer, though apparently not in this case.

[joyous]

This is such a sad, terrible story. I honestly cannot understand why tests were not done. Why would you give premature infants an untested, unregulated products? Those poor parents. They trusted the doctors that this product was acceptable for their babies, but like that mother said, they became the research subjects.

[jam's mum]

Jebus.

[Quickshep19]

This stuff isn't supposed to be given to preemies. It says so on the box. My son uses it, otherwise he aspirates his Elecare. Without it & the Elecare he would still be Failure to Thrive. He has been on it since 7 months and is 14 mos now.

Jodie ~ mama to Big K, Medium K & Lil' k