Breastfed baby starves to death
Her newborn seemed to be drinking all the time – but three days later his heart stopped because he was so dehydrated
BREAST is best. All the experts and the baby books say breastfeeding strengthens the bond between mother and baby and gives the little one the best start in life. So when Jillian Johnson had her son, Landon, she was determined to feed him herself – little knowing she was sending her son to an early grave. The baby cried a lot and seemed to want to drink all the time, so Jillian persevered. But three days later the little boy was so dehydrated his heart stopped and he spent 15 days on life support before his parents decided to switch off the machines.
“Landon would be five today if he were still alive,” says Jillian, who lives in California in the US with her husband, Jarrod, and younger daughter, Stella.
“It’s a very hard birthday. Five is a milestone and most kids would be starting kindergarten now. But not my little guy.”
Jillian recently decided to share her story in a blog for the Fed Is Best Foundation, an organisation that aims to provide information about the safest nutrition for newborn babies. Instead of “breast is best”, she wants to share the message that “fed is best” – in the hope that no other family experiences the loss of an otherwise healthy baby.
In preparation for the birth of their first child, Jillian and Jarrod attended antenatal classes and read all the baby books they could lay their hands on. Landon was born weighing a healthy 3,36 kg and the new parents thought they were ready. The “baby-friendly” hospital encouraged mothers to breastfeed and Jillian got right down to it. But Landon never seemed satisfied.
“He cried unless he was on the breast and I began to nurse him continuously,” she writes in her blog. “When I asked the nurses why he was always on my breast I was told he was ‘cluster feeding’.”
Yet the real reason for her baby’s inconsolable crying was because he was starving. “The lactation consultants would come in and see that he had a great latch and said he was doing fine.
“One mentioned I might have a problem producing milk and said it could be because I’d been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome and it was harder for women with hormone imbalances to produce milk.”
Two and a half days after he was born, Jillian and Landon were sent home with no instructions to give him anything other than breastmilk. But 12 hours later the little boy’s heart stopped.
He was rushed to hospital where doctors managed to revive him and put him on life support. But the damage was done: he’d gone into cardiac arrest due to dehydration and his body all but shut down.
He was kept alive 15 days before Jillian and Jarrod faced the inevitable: their little boy was never coming back.
JILLIAN still battles feelings of guilt. “I still ask myself, ‘What if I’d just given him a bottle?’” When Stella was born, her experience was different. “Stella was always quiet. I kept asking the nurses what was wrong with her. They said nothing. She’s doing what she’s supposed to. Sleeping. Eating. It was then I realised it wasn’t normal for a newborn to cry as much as Landon did. He was just crying from hunger. I still struggle daily feeling as though I failed him.”
Although what happened to Landon is rare, Jillian wants new moms to understand how important it is to pay attention to the warning signs. She’d kept breastfeeding because she remembered hearing about cluster feeding in the antenatal classes, and because experts told her Landon was fine. But by the time he was 53 hours old he’d lost nearly 10 percent of his body weight.
Jillian says losing her son has taught her the true meaning of “life is short”.