Karen Roush, AJN’s former editorial director, alerted me to a great story. A careful assessment by a nurse practitioner (NP) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, uncovered a potential reason for an infant’s HIV diagnosis. The staff at the hospital had been stymied in trying to ascertain how a nine-month-old infant developed HIV after earlier tests had shown her to be HIV-negative. The mother, who was HIV-positive, had not breastfed the child, nor was there evidence of injury or sexual transmission, and the infant had not received blood transfusions.
Marion Donohoe, the NP, in taking a detailed history from the mother, asked her about feeding practices, including pre-mastication. Yes, said the mother, she had been pre-chewing food for her daughter. Read the rest of this entry ?
