80lb 3 year old on Dr. Phil

[Wifezilla]

They showed this girl who is 80lbs at 3 years old. Mom has been taking her to specialist after specialist. They keep talking about the calories this child eats and how it isn't that high. The calories they ARE giving her include Jello, Juice, I saw a Coke on the table, bread, etc...

She was put in the hospital for a while and they had this kid on 600 calories a day and she only lost 2 lbs. Normal kids her age usually need more like 1300 calories a day. She cries constantly for food.

This is SO SAD!

Have they even thought of limiting her carbs??? Maybe that would help the constant hunger!
http://www.drphil.com/

[rightnow]

That's so tragic.

[Nancy LC]

There's a genetic disorder it might be. Forgot the name. But usually it creates an incredible appetite, not sure if it makes it super hard to lose weight.

[M Levac]

The cause doesn't have to be genetic. It can be due to the mother's blood glucose and insulin level and maybe insulin resistance during pregnancy. This will transfer to the fetus since it is fed by the mother's blood. The child will be born with high blood glucose, high insulin level and consequently high insulin resistance.

[Nancy LC]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prader-Willi_syndrome

Prader-Willi syndrome is also frequently associated with an extreme and insatiable appetite, often resulting in morbid obesity. There is currently no consensus as to the cause for this particular symptom, although genetic abnormalities in chromosome 15 disrupt the normal functioning of the hypothalamus.[6] Given that the hypothalamus regulates many basic processes, including appetite, there may well be a link. However, no organic defect of the hypothalamus has been discovered on post mortem investigation.[6]


I remember hearing about a mother whose child had this and CPS was going to, or did, take away her child because they thought she was overfeeding her. I believe they've also got very slow metabolisms so it's a double edged sword.

Here's a story about such a thing: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/68403/living_with_praderwilli_syndrome_the.html?cat=70

[Wifezilla]

This child was tested for PW syndrome and she tested negative. I think Martin is right. Mom was somewhat obese.

[jschwab]

The cause doesn't have to be genetic. It can be due to the mother's blood glucose and insulin level and maybe insulin resistance during pregnancy. This will transfer to the fetus since it is fed by the mother's blood. The child will be born with high blood glucose, high insulin level and consequently high insulin resistance.

Where did you come up wth this? I have never heard of anything like that.

Janine

[Saskaloon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestational_diabetes

When my son was born, one the attending physicians said "Congratulations, you've given birth to a one month old!".

While my wife didn't have full-blown gestational diabetes, she was cautioned by her OB-GYN to take it easy. (I believe her exact quote was "Do you want to give birth to a 10 lb. baby?) Elevated blood sugar levels during pregnancy can cause the fetus to pack-on weight.

Incidentally, our son was 9 lbs - 9 oz and only 5 days overdue.

.\\ark

[Jael]

Where did you come up wth this? I have never heard of anything like that.

Janine

Here's another source:

http://www.diabetes.org/gestational-diabetes.jsp

How gestational diabetes can affect your baby

Gestational diabetes affects the mother in late pregnancy, after the baby's body has been formed, but while the baby is busy growing. Because of this, gestational diabetes does not cause the kinds of birth defects sometimes seen in babies whose mothers had diabetes before pregnancy.
However, untreated or poorly controlled gestational diabetes can hurt your baby. When you have gestational diabetes, your pancreas works overtime to produce insulin, but the insulin does not lower your blood glucose levels. Although insulin does not cross the placenta, glucose and other nutrients do. So extra blood glucose goes through the placenta, giving the baby high blood glucose levels. This causes the baby's pancreas to make extra insulin to get rid of the blood glucose. Since the baby is getting more energy than it needs to grow and develop, the extra energy is stored as fat.

This can lead to macrosomia, or a "fat" baby. Babies with macrosomia face health problems of their own, including damage to their shoulders during birth. Because of the extra insulin made by the baby's pancreas, newborns may have very low blood glucose levels at birth and are also at higher risk for breathing problems. Babies with excess insulin become children who are at risk for obesity and adults who are at risk for type 2 diabetes.

[anyway...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestational_diabetes

When my son was born, one the attending physicians said "Congratulations, you've given birth to a one month old!".

While my wife didn't have full-blown gestational diabetes, she was cautioned by her OB-GYN to take it easy. (I believe her exact quote was "Do you want to give birth to a 10 lb. baby?) Elevated blood sugar levels during pregnancy can cause the fetus to pack-on weight.

Incidentally, our son was 9 lbs - 9 oz and only 5 days overdue.

.\\ark

This reminds me of something I noticed recently.

Because I temporarily have no life, I've been up at 5am watching discovery health. At 5am is the show where they have all the complicated deliveries ("Special Delivery") and at 6am, they have that show of deliveries from the miami birthing center where its all natural births, a lot of them water births, done by midwives ("House of Babies").

Now, check this out.

In the complicated birth show, many MANY of the women suffer from gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.. some of them even full eclampsia. And, unless they're having the mother deliver a premature baby, their babies are always huge from the diabetes and other complications.

The miami midwife show... well the head midwife there, Shari Daniels (who, btw, has such a personality on her!) counsels the pregnant mothers to forego (or, at least limit) sugar and starches and to get plenty of protein. You never hear about difficult births on her show and the babies are usually in the area of 6lbs-ish.

Now yes, I know that one is a trauma show and the other isn't so there is going to be a distinct difference in the births they show. But that aside what is really telling is the size of the babies and how the women counseled to, essentially, eat low carb had normal sized babies that they could deliver naturally without complications and the women who weren't eating this way (I assume, because really, how do you get gestational diabetes eating a ton of protein?) have medical problems and huge babies.

[NGCam]

I wonder if this child was tested for Cushing's Syndrome. I recall seeing a similar case on "Mystery Diagnosis" a while back.

[Josiemk]

The cause doesn't have to be genetic. It can be due to the mother's blood glucose and insulin level and maybe insulin resistance during pregnancy. This will transfer to the fetus since it is fed by the mother's blood. The child will be born with high blood glucose, high insulin level and consequently high insulin resistance.

Y'all are starting to scare me. I was always thin & had high metabolism I remember when I was in high school I weighed around 90 pounds & even went as low as 80 pounds. But when I was pregnant I gained 50 pounds which is a lot of weight on a 5 ft person. I also got gestational diabetes. My daughter was born at 37 weeks & weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces. She seems to have a high metabolism right now, she's almost 2 yrs old & only weighs 20 pounds. Yes she's thin & people think she's alot younger then she really is but she does seem healthy. I hope she doesn't get like that, my MIL wants her to fatten up. But her Dr says she's fine she's just fallowing my foot steps. My mom is also ok with it as well because both me & my brother were also like that.

[GypsyClare]

Well before we scare everyone about big babies, my homebirthed kids were, in order of birth:
10lbs, 4oz
9lbs, 5oz
8lbs, 14oz

I had no gestational diabetes (and yes I was tested every visit); first two were born on their due dates, third one was a week late. By six months all three were light for their ages, and today at ages 14, 12, and 9 they are all tall and slim. It's true that none of them have very fast metabolisms, a fact which I have always honored by never urging them to eat more than they wanted.

In fact, child #2 was rather skinny at 9+ lbs because she was so long. She has always been over the charts for height, and at about 25th percentile for weight.

I knew many other moms who birthed at home whose kids were in the 9-10lb range at birth and who today are healthy weight (whether or not the moms are).

I just don't want people to be afraid of large babies. My midwife says they're actually easier to give birth to than smaller ones. I'm not trying to say that "bigger is better" when it comes to babies. I know plenty of healthy 6-pounders too.

I just don't want anyone to start worrying if they have a big baby, in the absence of any other complication.

[Josiemk]

The only reason I worry about having a big baby is because I'm barely 5 ft plus I have a short torso. And the bigger I got the more my arms seem to shrink.

[ReginaW]

My midwife says they're actually easier to give birth to than smaller ones.

I'd have to disagree...there is clear data that larger babies (macrosomia) have significantly higher risk for shoulder dystocia during delivery.

Acker et al;

Infant weight in Nondiabetic women | % shoulder dystocia

Less than 4000 g 1.1%
4000g - 4499 g 10.0%
Greater than 4500 g 22.6%

Kolderup; in a review of 2924 macrosomic deliveries at UCSF, reported that macrosomic infants have a six fold increase in significant injury from shoulder dystocia deliveries compared with controls.

Jackson; showed in his series of 8258 deliveries that the average birth weight of babies who suffered brachial plexus injuries was 4029 g., whereas the average birth weight of all deliveries was 3160 g

Nisbet;

Weight | Percent shoulder dystocia

4000-4250 5.2%
4250-4500 9.1%
4500-4750 14.3%
4750-5000 21.1%

[GypsyClare]

LOL yeah, 5lbs 10oz seems a reasonable size baby, especially at 37 weeks!

Of course I got it from both sides, since my babies were born big, but then just kept getting taller without seeming to gain weight! I think it was a little easier for me than some of my friends with equally slim children, because mine were tall and therefore "bigger" overall. I mean if my son was 95th percentile for height and 25th for weight, and my friend's was 10th percentile for height and below the charts for weight, what does that tell you except one boy is bigger than the other? And today they are both 14: my son is 6'3" and hers is 5'3". Both slim (although we moms are NOT slim) and perfectly healthy. But because he was smaller overall, his mom got a lot more grief from the doctors.

The point is not how big they are but are they growing and developing normally?

[jschwab]

The reason I asked about this supposed link between mother's BG and kids' lifetime susceptibility to being fat is because I've done a lot of reading on this issue (as a mom who always had big babies: 8lbs6oz, 9lbs,2oz, 10lbs,10oz) and was also counseled about the big baby syndrome. Turns out a lot of it is a red herring, especially the part about having lifelong consequences for the child becoming fat. My kids are likewise very fit, thin and healthy. The shoulders breaking in the case of babies who get stuck doesn't happen naturally - the doctors break the clavicle to help pull the baby out. I had all my kids completely naturally, at home, without even a skid mark (ladies will know what I mean). It was very easy - my easiest was my largest. Women with diabetes, whether it is diagnosed before the pregnancy or during, will have these oddly fat babies. But many people do not even agree that there is such a thing as gestational diabetes. In any case, everyone I've known who supposedly had it was also rail thin and had small babies. To the man whose doctors thought her kid looked like a one month old: doctors are so used to inducing and doing "emergency" c-sections when the baby is not quite ripe, I reckon many of them no longer have a good perspective on what a normal full-term infant looks like.

[Wifezilla]

The kid on this show was also tested for Cushings. Again, negative.

[rightnow]

My kid was less than 7 lbs. Which is big enough, believe me. But when one doc tried to insist I give her formula a week later, I freaked out and started nursing, pumping and feeding her the pumped stuff then nursing, then... she grew massively and fast. When she was 10 months old I took her to the doctor for a checkup, and the room had about 9 other kids there, all 1-1.5 years old, and she was as big as they were! But by first grade she was the same size as everybody else, so they caught up. I always thought maybe I subconsciously transferred my panic at her needing to grow and not be too small because I didn't want to give her formula, lol!

[Nancy LC]

I wonder if this child was tested for Cushing's Syndrome. I recall seeing a similar case on "Mystery Diagnosis" a while back.
That show is so cool. :) I love it when I guess the diagnosis correctly.

[cnmLisa]

Well before we scare everyone about big babies, my homebirthed kids were, in order of birth:
10lbs, 4oz
9lbs, 5oz
8lbs, 14oz

I had no gestational diabetes (and yes I was tested every visit); first two were born on their due dates, third one was a week late. By six months all three were light for their ages, and today at ages 14, 12, and 9 they are all tall and slim. It's true that none of them have very fast metabolisms, a fact which I have always honored by never urging them to eat more than they wanted.

In fact, child #2 was rather skinny at 9+ lbs because she was so long. She has always been over the charts for height, and at about 25th percentile for weight.

I knew many other moms who birthed at home whose kids were in the 9-10lb range at birth and who today are healthy weight (whether or not the moms are).

I just don't want people to be afraid of large babies. My midwife says they're actually easier to give birth to than smaller ones. I'm not trying to say that "bigger is better" when it comes to babies. I know plenty of healthy 6-pounders too.

I just don't want anyone to start worrying if they have a big baby, in the absence of any other complication.

I'm glad you put that in there.

I am a Certified Nurse Midwife and have been practicing for over 10 years and you are correct--the distiction here is that you did NOT have gestational diabetes.

There are some women who are healthy without insulin/glucose issues who have a predisposition for having large babies, you seem to fall into that category. Big healthy normally proportioned infants.

The ease of delivery is also related to pelvis size and shape regardless if it is a 5 pounder or a 10 pounder. There are some large women who have small pelvises and some small women who have very roomy pelvises.

Where the problem arises is that in the gestational diabetic and insulin dependent diabetic with poor glucose control, these fetuses not only get big, but they are out of proportion. I usually call this the linebacker syndrome. Not only is the fetus big, but the shoulder growth is unusually increased. This can lead to a delivery complication called shoulder dystocia which is considered an obstetrical emergency--basically, the head delivers, the shoulders are so wide, they become stuck behind the pubic bone. This is one of the OB providers worst nightmares. In the most severe of cases, shoulder dystocia can lead to permanent birth injury or death.

Now, with that said--shoulder dystocia can happen to a 10 pound baby or a 6 pound baby. Shoulder dystocia is almost impossible to predict but there are some flags--maternal obesity, gestational diabetes/poor glucose control, macrosomia (a fetus > 4000-4500 grams), excessive weight gain during pregnancy, etc.

Oh, and just for clarity sake--we do NOT PULL the baby out.

(Thanks Regina--I just fully read your post)

Lisa

[cnmLisa]

My kid was less than 7 lbs. Which is big enough, believe me. But when one doc tried to insist I give her formula a week later, I freaked out and started nursing, pumping and feeding her the pumped stuff then nursing, then... she grew massively and fast. When she was 10 months old I took her to the doctor for a checkup, and the room had about 9 other kids there, all 1-1.5 years old, and she was as big as they were! But by first grade she was the same size as everybody else, so they caught up. I always thought maybe I subconsciously transferred my panic at her needing to grow and not be too small because I didn't want to give her formula, lol!

I guess my qestion here would be WHY did he want you to give her formula? Was it just arbitraily (sp) or was it because she had lost a certain percentage of her delivery weight and not gained it back, an inadequate milk supply? not enough wet/poopy diapers? If it was just arbitrary, this would be so wrong. If it was for a medical indication (such as inadequate milk supply) I can see where he was going, but there are multiple things to do to increase a milk supply. Just wondering.

[ReginaW]

There are some large women who have small pelvises and some small women who have very roomy pelvises.

Yuppers....I'm 6' tall and one would think, given my hips, that I have a roomy pelvis, ideal for birthing...but alas, I don't!

If it were 100-years ago, rather than in labor in the present, I would have likely been a maternal death static in attempting to deliver my son...not only was it determined during my c-section that indeed my pelvis was a wee-bit too narrow to deliver him, but his head was also tilted in just a way (presenting with the side of his head near his ear, so his neck was cocked slightly to the side) that no matter how long I labored (I'd been in L&D for 44-hours before the c-section decision was made), he was not going to be delivered without intervention.

[pennink]

I, too, had a big baby. 9lbs 14 and I DID NOT have gestational diabetes. I wasn't even in the high risk group.

She was, however, very very long.

Heck, she has my abnormally long legs and her father's stretched out torso. If she weighed less she'd have looked like a fruit-roll up or something, all long and gangly.

She's 16 now, 5 8" (maybe more now) and wears a size 10 shoe. Takes after her father's side of the family. She has no health issues and never has had any.

Feel like there's a anti-big baby movement when I read this stuff. :lol:

[MizKitty]

Dr Eades blogged on a toddler like this last year, who he suspected was leptin deficient. Here's a link to that, if interested.
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/leptin-low-carb-and-hunger/

[BetsyJ64]

Weighing in here (no pun intended) on the large baby issue. My DD weighed 10 lbs. 8oz. and was 24" long at birth. I am 5'8 and her father is 6'4". While she was always the TALLEST kid in the class, she was never the heaviest....she (LUCKILY) received her skinny dad's metabolism, and now is 20 years old, 5'11" and 150 pounds and very healthy. I never had gestational diabetes, had a very quick labor/delivery (4 hours total), no cut, tears, or even stitches. All of my mother's babies (there were 10 of us) were 9 pounds or over. So I think I agree with the "predisposition for larger babies". Although 3 of my 4 sisters did have average weight babies.....it was just me with the big girl! :D

[KvonM]

i've got you all beat. i gave birth to 12lbs, 15oz worth of baby. natural birth, absolutely no complications, no episiotomy, just one small skidmark and one stitch.

no gestational diabetes, no pre-ecclampsia, no high blood pressure, absolutely everything normal.

yeah... ok... it was split between twins. but they were 6lbs 10oz and 6lbs 5oz, and i took them to 38 weeks. my midwife was the one who said "ok they've cooked enough... you're DONE!" :D

[ReginaW]

Weighing in here (no pun intended) on the large baby issue. My DD weighed 10 lbs. 8oz. and was 24" long at birth. I am 5'8 and her father is 6'4". While she was always the TALLEST kid in the class, she was never the heaviest....she (LUCKILY) received her skinny dad's metabolism, and now is 20 years old, 5'11" and 150 pounds and very healthy. I never had gestational diabetes, had a very quick labor/delivery (4 hours total), no cut, tears, or even stitches. All of my mother's babies (there were 10 of us) were 9 pounds or over. So I think I agree with the "predisposition for larger babies". Although 3 of my 4 sisters did have average weight babies.....it was just me with the big girl! :D

I do think a predisposition toward birth weight and length is heritable...I was 8lbs4oz and 21" (adult height 6"), DH was 8lbs2oz and 22" (adult height 6'2")...DS was 8lbs0oz and 21" and on-time for due date. Various online calculators 'predict' his adult height will be 6'1" to 6'3.5"....will be fun to see if any are right!

[Wifezilla]

Hey Regina,

I didn't realize you were a fellow amazon :D ^5!

My boys were both 8 lbs 7oz. One is 6' 1' and the other is 6' 3'. Hubby is 6' like me.

[ReginaW]

I didn't realize you were a fellow amazon ^5!

Backatcha ^5

DH is 6'2"

[MizKitty]

i've got you all beat. i gave birth to 12lbs, 15oz worth of baby. natural birth, absolutely no complications, no episiotomy, just one small skidmark and one stitch.


Kvon, as I read your first paragraph, I was thinking "OMG, that's what my twins weighed!" LOL!

[rightnow]

I guess my qestion here would be WHY did he want you to give her formula? Was it just arbitraily (sp) or was it because she had lost a certain percentage of her delivery weight and not gained it back, an inadequate milk supply? not enough wet/poopy diapers? If it was just arbitrary, this would be so wrong. If it was for a medical indication (such as inadequate milk supply) I can see where he was going, but there are multiple things to do to increase a milk supply. Just wondering.
He was a youngish doctor. Babies are expected to lose up to 10% of their birth weight by the end of the first week. She lost exactly that. I pointed this out to him, that thinking she was losing too much weight didn't make sense by the standard that was literally on a poster on the wall in the hallway of the office. But he wanted me to try. I was very upset about it -- hormonal I'm sure, the "my BAYbeee is STARviiiiing!" reaction nearly made me get hysterical on the spot. Wow, what instincts will do LOL! I went home and as he insisted, gave her 2 oz of formula, which is A LOT for a newborn (and I knew would reduce her on my breast, so reduce MY milk so...) and although she managed to figure out the bottle teat difference, she drank it, looked at me, and then projectile-vomited the entire contents back out. My husband and I both snapped, "That's IT! She is NOT drinking this crap!" and I went back to the doctor's office as they'd requested two weeks later -- after literally nursing/pumping nearly every waking hour for two weeks -- and an older doc who ran the clinic saw me. I told him about the previous doc's leaning on me, he could see the weight etc. on the chart, and he said, "That was incorrect. Understand, these young doctors, medical school really leans on them to encourage formula. I'll speak with him about that. You're doing just fine." I burst into tears, LOL!

[cnmLisa]

i've got you all beat. i gave birth to 12lbs, 15oz worth of baby. natural birth, absolutely no complications, no episiotomy, just one small skidmark and one stitch.



yeah... ok... it was split between twins. but they were 6lbs 10oz and 6lbs 5oz, and i took them to 38 weeks. my midwife was the one who said "ok they've cooked enough... you're DONE!" :D

I was like HOLY SHI$!!! I wish I had of attended that delivery!:) Boy that could have been bragging rights for any midwife for an entire lifetime:lol:

Twins! Silly me!;)

Rightnow--I guess that youngn' you were seeing hadn't kept up on the recommendations of the the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding breastfeeding (although those have been recent-I don't know how long ago this happened). Plus with the chart right there in front of his face--what an idiot.

[jschwab]

"Oh, and just for clarity sake--we do NOT PULL the baby out."

SORRY! I have this image of doctors with forceps but I gues that is not how it works, but you do break the clavicle right? I was just trying to point out that the shoulder trauma referenced in the article was actually a medical procedure. There is another technique called the Gaskin maneuver where the mother is quickly placed in a favorable position and the baby comes out (at least in natural, unhindered birth where she is mobile).

By the way, I am in total awe of your work. I had homebirth midwives - anyone who does that for a living deserves a big pat on the back.

[lightenup]

In my personal experience, I'd have to agree that eating low carb during pregnancy is probably a good thing.

My blood sugar was fine with my first. I delivered late and by C-section, and she was about 7.5 pounds. But with my second, my blood sugar was borderline and I had a nearly 10 pound boy, two weeks early. The ironic thing was that I delivered him naturally. I think they called that a "VBAC".

FWIW, neither of my kids (20 and 15 now) have had a weight problem, but that's not to say they won't later in life. My younger one was off the charts until he hit grade school where he's been in about the 50th percentile since. Those early years did scare me a bit, though. He was pretty tremendous and became difficult for me to carry.

[cnmLisa]

"Oh, and just for clarity sake--we do NOT PULL the baby out."

SORRY! I have this image of doctors with forceps but I gues that is not how it works, but you do break the clavicle right? I was just trying to point out that the shoulder trauma referenced in the article was actually a medical procedure. There is another technique called the Gaskin maneuver where the mother is quickly placed in a favorable position and the baby comes out (at least in natural, unhindered birth where she is mobile).

By the way, I am in total awe of your work. I had homebirth midwives - anyone who does that for a living deserves a big pat on the back.

Ahhh thanks!:blush:

The Gaskin manuever--named for a most famous and well-known midwife--in midwifery circles that is--can be extremely effective with minimal to no trauma for disimpacting an impacted shoulder. It's as simple as flipping the mother onto all fours. It's funny--almost every midwife knows this trick and almost no doctors know it:q: Go figure. (let me also add in case an MD is going to bash me--it doesn't always work)

Usually it is the practitioner that breaks the clavicle but it can happen on it's own.

Lisa

[lowcarbUgh]

That show is so cool. :) I love it when I guess the diagnosis correctly.

I iike too and also the medical examiner show.

BTW, folks, I am diabetic and had 3 children while having diabetes. My son weighed over 10 lbs when he was born. He's now 20, 6'1" and weighs 165 lbs. None of my kids are overweight and I didn't allow junk food in my house. I think it is more of a matter of what we feed them and the example we set for them in what we eat. The environment is just as important as anything else.

[cnmLisa]

I iike too and also the medical examiner show.

BTW, folks, I am diabetic and had 3 children while having diabetes. My son weighed over 10 lbs when he was born. He's now 20, 6'1" and weighs 165 lbs. None of my kids are overweight and I didn't allow junk food in my house. I think it is more of a matter of what we feed them and the example we set for them in what we eat. The environment is just as important as anything else.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

[jschwab]

Ahhh thanks!:blush:

The Gaskin manuever--named for a most famous and well-known midwife--in midwifery circles that is--can be extremely effective with minimal to no trauma for disimpacting an impacted shoulder. It's as simple as flipping the mother onto all fours. It's funny--almost every midwife knows this trick and almost no doctors know it:q: Go figure. (let me also add in case an MD is going to bash me--it doesn't always work)

Usually it is the practitioner that breaks the clavicle but it can happen on it's own.

Lisa

Maybe it has something to do with personality - I had a really hard time getting through Spiritual Midwifery - just couldn't handle the "terminology", tee hee. My husband's aunt visited there in the 70's when she was an obstetrics student and reported to us that, at the time, they ate table sugar straight for extra calories. Those women couldn't have been getting optimal prenatal nutrition. I am an advocate of low-carb for pregnancy and found the Brewer diet books especially helpful. I was one of those people who sucked on Coke and ice chips for nine months when I wasn't hanging out with my friend the porcelain goddess - it was all refined sugar all the time. No wonder my kids were so huge despite the continual lack of calories...

[cnmLisa]

Maybe it has something to do with personality - I had a really hard time getting through Spiritual Midwifery - just couldn't handle the "terminology", tee hee. My husband's aunt visited there in the 70's when she was an obstetrics student and reported to us that, at the time, they ate table sugar straight for extra calories. Those women couldn't have been getting optimal prenatal nutrition. I am an advocate of low-carb for pregnancy and found the Brewer diet books especially helpful. I was one of those people who sucked on Coke and ice chips for nine months when I wasn't hanging out with my friend the porcelain goddess - it was all refined sugar all the time. No wonder my kids were so huge despite the continual lack of calories...

Not my cup of tea,but hey I'll pull anything out of my bag of tricks if it works--Who am I to say;)

I am a proponent of a carb controlled diet during pregnancy (thru life)--most patients just look at me like I've grown horns:devil:

[jschwab]

Not my cup of tea,but hey I'll pull anything out of my bag of tricks if it works--Who am I to say;)

I am a proponent of a carb controlled diet during pregnancy (thru life)--most patients just look at me like I've grown horns:devil:

That's sad. I wish I'd known about it before I got pregnant. I think maybe I could have avoided the HG if I'd had sound nutrition BEFORE I got pregnant. I ended up on bed rest with my second and lost 30 pounds - 10 pounds alone in the 19th week. I have to say that low-carb has really helped me recover. As soon as I cut out grains, my iron levels shot up after being chronically low for awhile. I was really lucky to have a midwife who suggested readinf the Brewer book.

[KvonM]

I was like HOLY SHI$!!! I wish I had of attended that delivery!:) Boy that could have been bragging rights for any midwife for an entire lifetime:lol:

Twins! Silly me!;)
my primary was a midwife, and they only assigned a doctor to me after they found out it was twins (at 4.5 months along, after the big, extensive ultrasound). it was also a midwife that delivered them, although not my primary, it was someone i'd seen about a week earlier because i'd had a sinus infection causing a headache and they demanded i get into the office RIGHT THAT SECOND!

during the delivery, the nurses made comments about how damned easy everything was... "we could have done this in the birthing room", one said. "no kidding", i said.

funny thing was, the whole 26 hours i was in labor, it was the doctors who kept threatening me with a c-section. the midwives knew that everything was fine, everyone was exactly in the place they needed to be, no possibility of having to do a breech extraction, no complications arising, nothing at all preventing me from going naturally.

[susieq0613]

WOW, I know Ina Mae Gaskin - what a wonderful woman!
LOL Spiritual Midwifery - I get your point, but for it's time it was amazing.

All hail the midwives.....thanks ladies!
(former LLL leader here and grandma now to 6(one in heaven)....although my DIL :-( well let's just say she's out of the club)

[susieq0613]

maybe 'know' is too strong - met her at a conference 100 years ago, in awe of her though to this day

[jschwab]

WOW, I know Ina Mae Gaskin - what a wonderful woman!
LOL Spiritual Midwifery - I get your point, but for it's time it was amazing.

All hail the midwives.....thanks ladies!
(former LLL leader here and grandma now to 6(one in heaven)....although my DIL :-( well let's just say she's out of the club)

Ina Mae and the other pioneers really changed alot very quickly. Some info about me: I was supposed to a '72 homebirth but we lived too far from the hospital for the only homebirth doctor (he ended up training all the midwives that came later). My husband is the only one of his cousins not to be a homebirth. His mom had him at the hospital ('72) and then convinced every single one of her sisters it wasn't worth it to not have the baby at home. He was present at his cousin's birth when he was 10. And now it seems to be really moving more and more into the mainstream.

Janine

[lowcarbUgh]

I camped at Gaskins' farm in the mid 1970s and met ina Mae and all the midwifes. It WAS tough during those times when the population swelled to almost 10,000 people. We didn't even have running water and used outhouses. There were few permanent structures on the farm at that time. She IS a remarkable woman. Stephen struck me as kind of weird, and I was kind of weird at that time. He still strikes me as weird. She totally outclasses him.

[jschwab]

I camped at Gaskins' farm in the mid 1970s and met ina Mae and all the midwifes. It WAS tough during those times when the population swelled to almost 10,000 people. We didn't even have running water and used outhouses. There were few permanent structures on the farm at that time. She IS a remarkable woman. Stephen struck me as kind of weird, and I was kind of weird at that time. He still strikes me as weird. She totally outclasses him.

I have a very dear colleague who was on the Farm at that time and he is absolutely one of my favorite people - and he loves that community. You know she was remarkable when you read the book and realize that all of the first Farm births happened in truck stop parking lots. The one thing I really don't appreciate about Ina Mae is her anti-fat bias in midwifery and her vegetarianism. We had the Farm cookbook (a recent publication date) and it was hideous - just the worse kind of 70's vegetarianism. She is one of the few prominent midwives that I know of who thinks fat women are not really good enough to birth naturally (that may not be totally and completely accurate but that is the sense that I've gotten from a few of her stated clinical positions).

Janine

[NixCarbos]

I agree with what many here say. My son was 10lbs 8oz and is currently 7 yrs old, 4'5" and weighs 65lbs. Skinny minny. My daughter was 7lbs 6oz and is currently 26lbs and 34.5", minny minny.

Interestingly, the WII Fit says that my daughter is obese, according to the BMI. As well, it says my son is overweight. LOL, neither has any kind of weight issue. My daughter just started wearing 18 month clothing and my son has to wear boy clothing size 8 sinched at the waist because his legs are so long. I am forever sinching his waists.

Lisa