Pro breastfeeding paediatrician
- Thread starter jools
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pinemarten
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Dr Tanpa Thondup is extremely pro-breastfeeding, from my experience with him. He works with Yvonne Heavyside at his clinic and will write referral letters for extra lactation consultations with her. His details are in the geobaby directory.
Thanks guys. He sounds great. I know he's supportive of breastfeeding from your responses, I need to know that he is also knowledgeable about breastfed babies. I know this sounds picky, but I need a paediatrician to debunk a few things that were said to my husband and I about our little man. I know what was said was based on breastfeeding myths, but I'm having a bit of a trial convincing my husband of this, so I need a second opinion. Thanks.
Thanks joannek. As a LLL member, they were my first port of call. However, my husband, bless him, has got it into his head that he needs back up provided by a medical professional. I have tried explaining that LLL is backed up by medical professionals and that they have been advising on breastfeeding for over fifty years, that LLL is the go to organisation for others who want information on breastfeeding and that the advice we received from the previous paediatrician contradicted everything that both the leaders and myself know about breastfeeding, but... he wants a medical professionals opinion. Therefore I need to find one who is going to back me up.
Well to cut a very long story short, our third little man was a very large baby. Since being born he has gradually worked his way down through the percentiles and has come to rest on a much lower one than one he was born on. He has now been tracking this percentile for 5 months; so to my mind this is the one he should be on as birth weight is not really an indication of where your child will eventually end up.
Anyway we had taken him in for his routine vaccinations and another doctor mentioned that he appeared to be quite small and maybe he would need growth hormones. Well that freaked me out so I took him to our paediatrician, who I thought would be able to offer some more supportive advice. This is the advice I got:
* I should wean him immediately (he was eight months at the time), maybe go away for the weekend and let someone else feed him the solids.
* As this was our third child maybe my milk was no longer of the same nutritional value as it had been for the other two.
* If I didn't increase his weight before he turned a year then he may not reach his full genetic potential, so in other words he wouldn't grow to be as tall as he possibly could be.
Firstly there is no way on God's earth that I am going to leave my little man for a weekend, let alone my other two, so that he can be fed by someone else. Not to mention the engorgement that I might suffer, possible mastitis, seperation anxiety for the little man etc.
There is no evidence whatso ever that your milk for your third child is deficient in nutrients and believe me I have searched everywhere. If this was the case then all third and fourth babies etc. would be smaller than their older siblings, and what about mothers who successfully breastfeed multiples?
What is his genetic potential? How do we know that his genetic potential is not going to mean he will be shorter? My husband and I are reasonably tall, but if you look at his parents and both sets of great grandparents, then they are much shorter. Also the charts just plot the trend of growth over the first year and are not always indicative of what will happen over the next year. There are so many factors that come into play to determine the eventual height of a child. I should point out he is reaching all his developmental milestones and in some of them achieveing them before he should.
My husband just wants what's best for our son and he feels that if there is anything that we can do then we must try. Like I said to cut a very long story short, I need a paediatrician who doesn't buy into breastfeeding myths and can see beyond this to offer advice based on medical facts.
Anyway we had taken him in for his routine vaccinations and another doctor mentioned that he appeared to be quite small and maybe he would need growth hormones. Well that freaked me out so I took him to our paediatrician, who I thought would be able to offer some more supportive advice. This is the advice I got:
* I should wean him immediately (he was eight months at the time), maybe go away for the weekend and let someone else feed him the solids.
* As this was our third child maybe my milk was no longer of the same nutritional value as it had been for the other two.
* If I didn't increase his weight before he turned a year then he may not reach his full genetic potential, so in other words he wouldn't grow to be as tall as he possibly could be.
Firstly there is no way on God's earth that I am going to leave my little man for a weekend, let alone my other two, so that he can be fed by someone else. Not to mention the engorgement that I might suffer, possible mastitis, seperation anxiety for the little man etc.
There is no evidence whatso ever that your milk for your third child is deficient in nutrients and believe me I have searched everywhere. If this was the case then all third and fourth babies etc. would be smaller than their older siblings, and what about mothers who successfully breastfeed multiples?
What is his genetic potential? How do we know that his genetic potential is not going to mean he will be shorter? My husband and I are reasonably tall, but if you look at his parents and both sets of great grandparents, then they are much shorter. Also the charts just plot the trend of growth over the first year and are not always indicative of what will happen over the next year. There are so many factors that come into play to determine the eventual height of a child. I should point out he is reaching all his developmental milestones and in some of them achieveing them before he should.
My husband just wants what's best for our son and he feels that if there is anything that we can do then we must try. Like I said to cut a very long story short, I need a paediatrician who doesn't buy into breastfeeding myths and can see beyond this to offer advice based on medical facts.
Can the LLL recommend a b/f informed/aware/educated paed in HK? Their counsellors aren't trained medical professionals so I would have thought they would have some experience referring parents to doctors?
I just had to say re the comment about not being able to b/f your third child
. What does that doctor think happens when #3 comes along? Your boobs stop working or something??????? That doctor sounds like he got his/her medical degree from a cornflakes packet.
I just had to say re the comment about not being able to b/f your third child
. What does that doctor think happens when #3 comes along? Your boobs stop working or something??????? That doctor sounds like he got his/her medical degree from a cornflakes packet.Dr Thondup
My baby is only 13 days old so I have limited experience with Dr Thondup though he came to see me everyday while at the Matilda (6 days), was present at my c section and we had a follow up visit last week. My husband is an attorney and therefore a no nonsense, give me the bottom line kind of guy. He also likes Dr Thondup. Mostly because the day our daughter was born, Dr Thondup told me how I would feel on day 1, 2, 3, etc. and how my daughter would react. He was 100% right. She lost quite a bit of weight while waiting for my milk to come in and Dr Thondup was never worried and very encouraging. I think a lot of other Drs would have started her on formula or whatever. He also is very up to speed about pediatric care in the US (where we're from) and has tailored our visits to coincide with the medical care we'd receive there. So he is very familiar with how breastfed babies develop, etc. He's also predicted when our daugher would go through growth spurts (based on her weight loss) and how she'd nurse - he's been exactly right. I believe his office visits are $650 and it's definitely worth giving him a try.
However he is very busy so do remember to write down all of your questions. I've read the fact that he's busy bothers some people but we're fine with that. Yvonne Heavyside also runs a well baby clinic in his office on Mondays.
My baby is only 13 days old so I have limited experience with Dr Thondup though he came to see me everyday while at the Matilda (6 days), was present at my c section and we had a follow up visit last week. My husband is an attorney and therefore a no nonsense, give me the bottom line kind of guy. He also likes Dr Thondup. Mostly because the day our daughter was born, Dr Thondup told me how I would feel on day 1, 2, 3, etc. and how my daughter would react. He was 100% right. She lost quite a bit of weight while waiting for my milk to come in and Dr Thondup was never worried and very encouraging. I think a lot of other Drs would have started her on formula or whatever. He also is very up to speed about pediatric care in the US (where we're from) and has tailored our visits to coincide with the medical care we'd receive there. So he is very familiar with how breastfed babies develop, etc. He's also predicted when our daugher would go through growth spurts (based on her weight loss) and how she'd nurse - he's been exactly right. I believe his office visits are $650 and it's definitely worth giving him a try.
However he is very busy so do remember to write down all of your questions. I've read the fact that he's busy bothers some people but we're fine with that. Yvonne Heavyside also runs a well baby clinic in his office on Mondays.
Thanks guys. Her degree from a cornflakes packet-that made me smile.
Thanks for the advice about Dr Thondup we are going to make an appointment with him.
As for LLL recommending doctors. They are not able to recommend specific doctors, since this could form a legal nightmare should someone want to litigate against medical intervention that was given. They can only advise that you contact a doctor if you have a medical concern.
Thanks for the advice about Dr Thondup we are going to make an appointment with him.
As for LLL recommending doctors. They are not able to recommend specific doctors, since this could form a legal nightmare should someone want to litigate against medical intervention that was given. They can only advise that you contact a doctor if you have a medical concern.
Maybe the LLL need to make a list of panel drs or something? There is obviously a huge need for drs in HK that understand b/f.
My local GP (in DB, so b/f shouldn't be entirely new to her) wrote in my 2nd daughter's baby book at 4 months that she needed a bottle of formula at bed time. She was in the 90th percentile for height and weight and had been sleeping 10-12 hours a night since 8 weeks on just breastmilk. I never did understand what the formula was supposed to do.
Oh, and then there was the Sunday Dr I went to (in DB again) when #2 was a few weeks old as I had thrush in the nipple. He wouldn't believe me that I had thrush in the nipple and insisted that it was mastitis. I had mastitis 5 times with #1 and I knew what it was. I didn't have it ! Anyway, we compromised. He gave me the medicine for BOTH thrush and mastitis ????????????? Is that really professional? I have to admit I was in so much pain that I just took both medicines. It cleared up very quickly. I haven't been back to him.
My local GP (in DB, so b/f shouldn't be entirely new to her) wrote in my 2nd daughter's baby book at 4 months that she needed a bottle of formula at bed time. She was in the 90th percentile for height and weight and had been sleeping 10-12 hours a night since 8 weeks on just breastmilk. I never did understand what the formula was supposed to do.
Oh, and then there was the Sunday Dr I went to (in DB again) when #2 was a few weeks old as I had thrush in the nipple. He wouldn't believe me that I had thrush in the nipple and insisted that it was mastitis. I had mastitis 5 times with #1 and I knew what it was. I didn't have it ! Anyway, we compromised. He gave me the medicine for BOTH thrush and mastitis ????????????? Is that really professional? I have to admit I was in so much pain that I just took both medicines. It cleared up very quickly. I haven't been back to him.
While it is true that as a LLL Leader I don?t recommend doctors or hospitals. I can tell you facts. The only doctor in Hong Kong I know of who has ever joined the LLL Medical Associates Program, http://www.llli.org/MAP.html, is Dr. Thondup.
There is an article called Working with Your Child's Doctor, http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/NBNovDec99p196.html, which has some good information about choosing a doctor, including possible interview questions.
Please remember that I?m happy for you to share my recourses with your doctor if interested. The book which I most often copy parts from for doctors is Medications and Mothers? Milk by Hale. Although I have also shared parts of the Breastfeeding Answer Book and information from Dr. Jack Newman as well.
Best wishes,
SARAH
There is an article called Working with Your Child's Doctor, http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/NBNovDec99p196.html, which has some good information about choosing a doctor, including possible interview questions.
Please remember that I?m happy for you to share my recourses with your doctor if interested. The book which I most often copy parts from for doctors is Medications and Mothers? Milk by Hale. Although I have also shared parts of the Breastfeeding Answer Book and information from Dr. Jack Newman as well.
Best wishes,
SARAH
Jane01, your comment re the thrush made me chuckle because the same thing happened to me with a doctor in DB - wonder if it's the same one?! He prescribed to me antibiotics for the mastitis, which I declined to use because I knew it was likely to make thrush worse, and I was also convinced I did not have mastitis! Lactation consultant from the Matilda pointed me towards thrush remedies on the Kellymom site which did the trick. And by the way, said doctor had been sent the information from the Kellymom site a few weeks earlier in relation to another patient.
Sarah, why do you think so many doctors (some of whom are otherwise excellent in other areas) are so ignorant about breastfeeding? Why should our internet browsing yield better results than qualified medical professionals???!!!
I'm sure they can't keep up-to-date on everything, but surely they can keep ABREAST of the important things that they are likely to encounter a lot, which in Discovery Bay would have to include breastfeeding issues!
Sarah, why do you think so many doctors (some of whom are otherwise excellent in other areas) are so ignorant about breastfeeding? Why should our internet browsing yield better results than qualified medical professionals???!!!
I'm sure they can't keep up-to-date on everything, but surely they can keep ABREAST of the important things that they are likely to encounter a lot, which in Discovery Bay would have to include breastfeeding issues!
Sorry Sarah, I have just read the link in your last post, and it already contains some good explanations about why doctors are not so hot on breastfeeding issues.
I can add a few ideas of my own, such as they like more scientific certainty than breastfeeding provides - for instance, if a baby is deemed to be underweight, ingesting an extra X ounces of formula per day will almost certainly do the trick, whereas how many extra minutes of breastfeeding are needed will depend on the individual case. Plus their trust in the power of medical intervention rather than facilitating what nature provides could be another reason.
Still makes me fume though! When I went for vaccinations for travel to obscure countries a few years ago, doctor did not know the information offhand but knew where to look on the internet for such information. Why can't they consult websites or those books mentioned by Sarah for breastfeeding information?
I can add a few ideas of my own, such as they like more scientific certainty than breastfeeding provides - for instance, if a baby is deemed to be underweight, ingesting an extra X ounces of formula per day will almost certainly do the trick, whereas how many extra minutes of breastfeeding are needed will depend on the individual case. Plus their trust in the power of medical intervention rather than facilitating what nature provides could be another reason.
Still makes me fume though! When I went for vaccinations for travel to obscure countries a few years ago, doctor did not know the information offhand but knew where to look on the internet for such information. Why can't they consult websites or those books mentioned by Sarah for breastfeeding information?
We went to see Dr Thondup today and I just had to say thank you to everyone who recommended him. He was absolutely fantastic. At no point did he blame breastfeeding for our son's slow weight gain; instead he has referred us to a dietician as he focussed on the fact our little man wasn't too keen on eating solids. I feel so much better now and my husband is very pleased that we can explore this medical avenue.
Thanks again from a very happy mummy.
Thanks again from a very happy mummy.