Cracked/bleeding nipples may force a mother to stop physical breastfeeding .. but her milk can be expressed manually, or with a pump, and fed to her infant from a bottle. If there was concern about the baby being harmed because of some blood getting in the milk, the medical and scientific literature shows that traces of blood in the mother's milk is not harmful to the baby in any way. In fact, it's relatively common for blood cells to appear in the milk during the first days after delivery as the capillaries and blood vessels in the breasts swell due to increased blood flow. Regardless .. cracked nipples heal, and nursing can safely be resumed as long as the mother has taken steps to ensure continued milk supply.

According to the rawfriends website, Woyah's DiGeorge Syndrome was "diagnosed at birth". Who diagnosed this condition? The birth was unattended by trained health care providers, only the husband .. and the missing thymus gland was only discovered at autopsy. DiGeorge Syndrom is very rare, and almost always there are other defects in addition to the missing/underdeveloped thymus gland, such as malformation of the blood vessels to the heart, missing or underdeveloped parathyroid gland, and also cleft palate. Of course, a cleft lip and/or palate would have been visibly obvious at birth. A cleft lip/palate can make breastfeeding very difficult as the infant isn't able to suck properly .. and this can increase the risk of cracked nipples due to irritation. In addition, if the baby can't suck properly she may not be able to take in adequate nourishment from breast or bottle. However, we don't know if Woyah suffered this defect.

A news article published at the time of Woyah's death stated that an inspection of the Andressohn's home revealed an extensive collection of books and literature about raw food nutrition. Testimony from friends and neighbours suggested that Lamoy read everything she could get her hands on about the subject, and she consulted raw food "experts". Of course, this could be just another one of those twisted and jaded media reports that rawfasting mentioned. OTOH, if the baby was diagnosed with a severe defect at birth, shouldn't those "experts" have counselled the Andressohn's to seek qualified medical attention? There are doctors, midwives and naturopaths who are also vegans.

Rawfasting, you are right, there are three if not dozens of sides to this story. The facts will come out in the courtroom, beginning May 31, 2005.


Doreen