Thursday, June 02, 2005
Filed Under: You've Got to be Kidding
Oh, Yeah, Right, Sure - I believe that. You find all sorts of funny pictures when doing a Google search. Wow. These people really made a good spoof page of Medline - looks just like it...
Hmm. Wait a sec. This is real. (HK shakes her head in disbelief...) Oh Lordy.
So I'm NEW, ok?
Posted by HypnoKitten at 12:38 AM
/Blink/
What am I missing? You hadn't heard of stork bites?
How about witch's milk?
Ron: No, I never did hear of stork bites - and I'm going to go look up witch's milk right now! ... :)
Witch's milk: A folk term for the milk that often comes from the breast of a newborn baby. This temporary phenomenon is due to stimulation of the baby's breasts by the mother's hormones that cross the placenta during pregnancy. The ability of the baby's breasts to respond in this fashion is a mark of baby born at (or near) full-term. The breast of a baby born prematurely cannot enlarge or produce witch's milk (in German, Hexenmilch).
The term "witch's milk" is sometimes applied broadly to milk from the nipple at any time other than during nursing. See also Galactorrhea.
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ooooOOOOooooo! How weird - I've heard of galactorrhea, but I didn't know it could come from the baby also.
OK - 'nuff learnin' for today!! Graduation is in two days! :)
I saw one third-year resident get freaked out by witch's milk -- she thought there was something wrong with the baby -- and I didn't know about it myself until an older nurse identified it. The resident had taken a smear for culture, and had it cultured anyway just for, I dunno, some hybrid of curiosity and CYA.
Half the fun of neonatal care is learning the folklore about babies. I suppose half the grief of it is having to work against some of the folklore in the broad sense, including, "It didn't come from MY side of the family!" and "God must be punishing you/me/us/them for (____)!"
Congrats on graduating!