Breastfeeding Management Clinic

The Breastfeeding Management Clinic provides a comprehensive approach to breastfeeding challenges for the baby and family. We can support any mother and baby having challenges (e.g., low milk, sore nipples) with breastfeeding from birth through older children (e.g., weaning). We see self-referrals, as well as, referrals from community physicians, birth centers and other lactation programs.

Our "Trifecta Team" (a pediatrician with breastfeeding expertise, a lactation consultant and a psychologist) offers a unique multidisciplinary team of services for a comprehensive breastfeeding evaluation of both mother and baby. It's covered by most insurance companies so only a copay is required. This new approach has been presented at national conferences as a novel model of care.

Why choose the Breastfeeding Management Clinic at Children's Hospital Colorado?

Our unique Trifecta Team

Julia Palozzi, PsyD is a fellowship-trained early childhood and infant mental health psychologist. She is passionate about the integration of psychological services into medical services, specifically pediatric primary care. Julia recognizes the profound psychological impact of the perinatal period on families and is invigorated by the opportunity to support parents and babies in such an exciting, vulnerable, and important transition period.

Maya Bunik, MD, MSPH, is professor of pediatrics at CU Medicine and has fellow designation as a pediatrician breastfeeding expert by the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. She leads the Breastfeeding Management Clinic Trifecta Team here at Children's Colorado. Her research on breastfeeding and combination feeding 'los dos' was cited in the Surgeon General's Call to Action on Breastfeeding, January 2011. Dr. Bunik's book, Breastfeeding Telephone Triage and Advice, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, is in its third edition. Her book is a helpful resource for physician practices and anyone providing telephone advice for breastfeeding. Dr. Bunik is the primary investigator on an evaluation trial of Mother's Milk Messaging App for texting and evidence-based breastfeeding support, which looks promising. She is also part of a study on the effects of marijuana in breast milk. Read about Breast Milk, Marijuana, and the Challenges of Research on a Fraught Frontier.

Whitney Dunlap, IBCLC is an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant since 2015 that has been serving the community in breastfeeding management for over 15 years. She provides a holistic approach in assisting families meet their individual breastfeeding goals. Her expertise as part of the Trifecta Team is invaluable in helping infants with latch and trouble-shooting any issue.

Breastfeeding issues addressed by our team include:

• Infant refusal at breast or sucking difficulties that interfere with breastfeeding
• Slow weight gain or failure to thrive in the breastfed infant
• Breastfed infant with reflux
• Infants born early at 36 to 38 weeks who are sleepy at the breast
• Breastfeeding a premature infant
• Breastfeeding children with special health needs such as Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis and heart disease
• Breastfeeding while mother is using medications, like contraception or an anti-depressant
• Breastfed infant with bloody stools or suspicion of food intolerance or allergies
• Breastfeeding while returning to work or school
• Mothers with breast pain
• Mothers with over-abundant milk supply
• Infants who are pulling away or clicking while feeding
• Breastfeeding more than one infant (multiple births)
• Prevention and management of sore nipples and engorgement
• Maintaining mother's milk and breastfeeding when the mother and infant are separated
• Promotion of ample milk production
• Challenges with mother or child-led weaning

Services offered at the Breastfeeding Management Clinic

• Outpatient clinics at various locations in the metro area. Phone consultation warm line.
• Comprehensive breastfeeding evaluation of mother and baby that includes history of mother and infant with attention to risk factors for milk supply, pre and post weight feeding assessment, medical evaluation and support and advice from board certified pediatrician with expertise in breastfeeding as well as an experienced nurse lactation consultant with years of work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
• Integrated infant mental health and child development specialist to support caregivers navigating the transition to parenthood.
• Focus on maternal-infant bonding and promoting positive caregiver-baby relationships related to breastfeeding.
• Receive support and strategies to manage stress, sleep-deprivation, sibling adjustment and other challenges related to breastfeeding.

Contact us

To learn more about the Breastfeeding Management Clinic at Children's Colorado, please call 720-777-3605. Times and locations available in the metro area. To schedule an appointment, please call 720-777-2740.

If you are a referring provider please download this referral form for the Breastfeeding Management Clinic.