Can't find the right teats!!!! Help!!

[BabsyT]

Hi guys,

I'm new here so bear with me! The story is as follows

My little man was coping too well with his "life inside" and came earlier than we all wanted. He was born at 34 weeks in November so is now 12 weeks old (6 weeks corrected gestational age).

He has some serious breathing and eating problems and was in the NICU for 4 weeks. He's on a special milk called Gold Prem 2 for preemie babies and will stay on that til hes about 1. He has significant reflux (projectile vomitting after most feeds!) and colic but because we can't change his milk to a stay down or comfort milk the doctor advised us to put his infant gaviscon AND/OR baby rice into his milk. This is all good... he keeps the baby rice down well as i gave him a spoonful the other day and he keeps the gaviscon down as i spoon fed him it the other day.

Our problem: he's a fussy drinker as it is.. (struggles to breath while drinking and then panics) so when the gaviscon and the rice are added to his bottles the milk is too thick to go through the teat. because he is so little (10lbs at 12 weeks old but still in newborn-1 month clothes) he can't handle a medium or fast flow teat... We use Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles and Dr Browns at night. Both tommee tippee and dr browns do "y-cut" teats but they are for 6-9 months and are quite fast...

I'm at a loss as to what to do!! Anyone have any advice/ideas or experience?

Also he drinks quite a lot of milk always has done (about 150-180ml every 4-5 hours) i've tried giving him less more often but he is sooo hungry. He isn't holding his head or even trying to (which is pretty normal for a preemie to be "slower") so the spoon feeding is a bit tricky at times!!

Sorry it's soooo long winded!!!

Thank you
x

 

[flamingpanda]

The TT variflow (x) teats can be used whenever if being used with thicker liquids (to my understanding). Hadley uses them as she is on SMA staydown, which is really thick! I'd say give those a try.

EDIT - Sorry also wanted to add that they do take some adjusting to. As you say they can be quite fast, but also as slow as needed. The trick is they need to learn the more they suck the more milk they get. Hadley took a few days to get the hang on them and we had quite a few coughs whilst she get used to them. Not sure how thick the milk is with you but the staydown is so thick that even held upside down it doesn't drip from the X teat. I would imagine the gaviscon has the same effect?

 

[BabsyT]

Hi

Yep its exactly the same! Hold it upside down nothing comes out!

Someone else told ne they were fast too! I have the whole tomee tippee set so it'd be cheaper to give them ago! I also have dr.browns so i have two choices lol!

He's still really small so like you said it'll take him a while to get used to! Its a pity they don't do slow flow/medium flow for thicker feeds!

Glad to hear your lo got the hang of it. Heres hoping Lorcan does too!

Thx
X

 

[JMB1992]

Hi, my lg also has reflux. She has gaviscon in her milk. Shes on Neocate for cmpa. It doesnt seem to make the feed to thick at all and she has been on a slow flow teat. I would forget the rice to thicken it. Stick with just gaviscon and ask for some other reflux meds e.g ranitidine or omeprazole xx

 

[BabsyT]

I was thinking the same! Got another doctors appointment so i'll give it a go altho the doctor isn't the most helpful! Lol!

Thanks