any tips for feeding?

[mrsty]

hi ladies..

for those that dont know baby Elodie was born last friday at 34+1 due to pet...she was on nicu fo 4 days and we are now both on the transitional care ward.
she seems mildly interested in bf but sucks for 30 secs then stops, she does a bit better with a bottle but i still have to top hher up through her tube.

she has lost a bt of weight and is now 4lb15oz so they dont want her to burn too many calories by trying to bf too much. problem is the longer she has her tube in the longer it is till we can look at going home...

any tips?



x

 

[gemini xo]

There is nothing you can do really hun, I realized this after wanting to try so many different things for my boy when he wasn't feeding too good as he was born 5 weeks early but the nurses just say "it's like a light switch going on" and it's true, one day your baby might not be feeding well at all then the next he's sucking away perfectly. That's how it happened with us, it feels like forever & I thought my boy would be in for much longer but he got him a week before his due date - just need to be patient.

x

 

[Foogirl]

We had a really hard time getting it established and I was so frustrated. I can understand their point about not overtiring her, but I would be giving it a try at every opportunity - even for a short while. And when you aren't there, make sure they keep on with the bottle feeds help with the sucking. This was the biggest catalyst for Abby's tube coming out!

In the end I relented and used a nipple shield. It really helped her latch on in the beginning. Once we were home, it took about a month to wean her off using it. But it was an absolute godsend (especially when I had to start using it again when my nimps were sore!)

 

[Marleysgirl]

I spent some very distressing time on NICU trying to get Andrew to latch for longer than a few seconds, and in the end it was the only thing stopping him from coming home. So we made a decision to feed him EBM from bottles instead, he took to it like a duck to water, and was home just days later. The intention was to try and establish BF but we never did, and I'm still happily expressing 7 months later.