Breastfeeding Counseling and Supplies Free under Affordable Care Act

A symbol of a mother nursing a child
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the new guidelines that require health insurance plans to cover women’s preventive services such as breastfeeding support, well-woman visits, domestic violence screening, and contraception without charging a co-payment, co-insurance or a deductible. New health plans will need to include these services without cost sharing for insurance policies with plan years beginning on or after August 1, 2012.

What a great news! The visits to the Providence Park Hospital’s Breastfeeding Clinic will become most affordable for all mothers.

Coincidentally [Continue reading…]

2011 Mom Approved Doc, Officially

Metro Parent Mom-Approved Doc Award (2011)

Thank you for voting me to the Metro Parent’s 2011 Mom Approved Docs! I was so humbled to receive the following comment from one of the parents:

She is kind, understanding, honest and trustworthy. Although she is busy, she never makes me feel rushed and returns my calls in a timely fashion. My son had an ongoing health issue, and she gave us contacts for the specialists and made phone calls to those doctors to give information and receive updates. – Michelle, Troy

Potty Training: You Are Bound to Succeed at Some Point

Lisa Doublestein recently approached me with a request for an interview for the May, 2011 issue of Start Early, Finish Strong, a publication of Wayne RESA Early Childhood Services. Below is the article that resulted from that interview, reproduced here by permission.

Q: My mother thinks I should be potty-training my 2-year-old, but I just don’t have time to do it right now! I want to wait until he’s 3. Am I waiting too long?

A: There are many stories in parenting circles about parents who potty train their kids in one day, or kids who simply decide to start using the potty. But for most families, potty training takes time and [Continue reading…]

Toddlers Should Ride Rear-Facing to Age 2

The American Academy of Pediatrics released the new, 2011 policy on car seats. The biggest change from the previous policy is that parents are now advised to keep their toddlers in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their seat. The recommendation is supported by new research showing that children under age 2 are 75 percent less likely to die or be severely injured in a crash if they are riding rear-facing.

The previous policy, from 2002, cited age 12 months and 20 pounds as a minimum to ride forward-facing. As a result, many parents turned the seat to face the front of the car when their child celebrated his or [Continue reading…]

Starting Solid Foods

To many new mothers feeding babies anything but the breast milk or formula can be a difficult task. Parents often have questions regarding what to start with and how much to give and how often and what to stay away from.

In reality it is not as complicated as it seems to be. Here some simple rules.

You may start solids between 5 and 6 months of babies age. Pick the time of the day when your baby has the best disposition and appetite, and give solids BEFORE you give the bottle or your breast. Start with a single ingredient food: powdered rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula that your baby is used to. If your baby has a [Continue reading…]

Attending the Lactation Specialist Course

Women have been helping other women breastfeed for millennia. As a pediatrician and as a woman I daily work together with mothers to prevent and solve breastfeeding problems. I feel it will be only appropriate for me to seek the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) credential. Next week (the week of November 1, 2010) I will be out of town attending an intensive 5-day Lactation Specialist Course offered by Lactation Education Consultants. This course qualifies participants for the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) certification exam.

When You Call the Doctor

It is stressful enough to be a parent of a healthy baby. It is many times more stressful to make decisions when your child is sick. What medicine to use, and whether to use any medicine at all? Take the child to the hospital now, or wait till morning and then call the office for an appointment? What food or liquid give to the baby? These questions must be answered promptly. That is why we pediatricians are available 24/7: just call our answering service and be connected to a doctor on call.

When to call?

We are here to help you, and do not mind at all midnight calls about urgent problems. Some examples include: fever in a baby younger than [Continue reading…]

Breastfeeding: Unveiling the Truth

While meeting parents before their baby is born or speaking to the mother of a newborn at the hospital, I am amazed at how many mothers have a totally distorted view on breastfeeding. From “I was fed formula, so I will feed my babies the same” to “I do not want to do it because it hurts”. These mothers do not realize that they are the victims of the culture, formula-feeding culture that is. Our country is probably unique: the formula industry totally changed the approach to feeding the baby, and breastfeeding is often viewed as an anachronism or inconvenience. We have lost the community/family knowledge about this process because for many generations babies were fed formula only. Where will the [Continue reading…]

Breastfeeding Clinic to Open at Providence Park Hospital in Novi

I recently had a pleasure to speak at the pediatric department meeting where I announced the opening of a Breastfeeding Clinic at Providence Park Hospital. I will start seeing patients there in July 2010.

The clinic will be Michigan’s second pediatrician-led breastfeeding clinic. The big advantage of such an arrangement over the private lactation consultations is not only the evaluation will be provided by a doctor, but also the fact that the services will be covered by most insurance plans.

Each mother-baby couple will be given 45 to 60 min appointment with a team consisting of a pediatrician and a lactation consultant. Our intentions are to help mothers to achieve their goals, whether it is exclusive breastfeeding or partial breastfeeding, to [Continue reading…]

The Miracle of Breastfeeding

Human milk is a miracle. Multiple studies proved already that formula doesn’t even get close to mother’s milk in the number of benefits it provides. More and more mothers realize it now and attempt to breastfeed their babies.

However, most of those mothers fail to nurse beyond two or three months. You may ask why? Isn’t breastfeeding a natural process? Yes, it is, but a nursing mother often finds herself surprisingly in pain and in doubts about her milk supply. Did she make the right decision starting to breastfeed? A new mother needs a lot of support to continue nursing; instead, friends and family may not understand why it is so bad to give a baby a bottle of formula. After [Continue reading…]