Feed temperature

[shreedhara12]

My Lo was born at 25th week of gestation and she is in NICU since 6 weeks. She was on and off feeds and so with ventilators and NCPAP. She is so small that she is fed by tube/gavage.

Since my wife is expressing milk, of which my LO is unable to consume; it is being deep-frozen and later liquidified. Does any one know to what temperature feed is de-frozen so as to make it fit for feeding !
My LO seems to have symptoms of pneumonia and have monitored in the recent days that the sister in change is feeding my LO chilled milk (not even cold) and would know if anyone did experience this situation.
Anyways, am gonna complain to the ward head in this reagrd.

 

[25weeker]

Congratulations on your little girl.

I was in 2 Nicu's and one would take the milk out of the freezer leave it at room temp for an hour to defrost then put it in the fridge. The other completely defrosted it in the fridge. Both would discard any unused milk 24 hours from it been taken out of the freezer.

Neither fed her chilled milk they always had it room temp by either putting it in her incubator a bit before her feed was due or running it under warm water.

Hope this helps.

 

[katy1310]

Hi and congratulations on your little girl.

When my daughter was in NICU, they always warmed the milk up in her incubator or had it at room temperature, she never had it chilled.

I expressed milk for the 12 weeks she was in NICU, so I had a lot in the freezer. They used to stand it in warm water to defrost it and then put it into the syringes and put them into her incubator to warm up.

I would definitely query it.

 

[Marleysgirl]

Similarly, Andrew always had his EBM warmed up, both on the unit and once we got home. He switched onto formula in April, and I continued to warm that. I have only recently (warm weather) started giving him formula feeds as cool as room temperature.

I was led to believe that if you fed them cold/cool milk, their body will try to warm it for digestion, using up vital calories.

 

[vermeil]

yes babies this small can`t maintain their body temperature yet - all of the precious calories they receive go towards vital functions. So yes the milk should be room temperature. My own 27 week little guy didn`t receive milk for 10 days - then it was always room temp in a small syringe. (it took weeks for the milk to actually be a success but that`s another story )

oh and congratulations dad!

 

[Foogirl]

Congratulations.

Abby's milk was always room temperature. If they needed it in a hurry it was put in warm water for a few minutes.

I know with full term babies the current thinking is that it really makes little difference. Friends of mine serve formula straight from the fridge others warm it first. I think it all comes down to what they are used to.

But for me, when it comes to breast milk, and certainly premature babies, it's designed to be served at body temperature.

 

[shreedhara12]

Thank you all for your inputs.
I have had a word with the head sister of NICU and she assured me that she would deal with the situation professionally. This is no personal grudge and hope not to see that particular nurse in my daughter's ward.

She also said that the regular practice is to bring back the frozen milk to liquid state by keeping it in normal room temperature and to mix well with a agitator or a vigor shake so that the milk is well mixed and later fed to baby. It seems that the nurses normally forget in their busy schedule to plan and bring feed from milk pantry/kitchen and realise late when the feed time is around; they choose alternate methods like running under warm water or rubbing the feed bottle to give warmth or even keeping it in incubator.

I was also informed that feeding cold milk to baby should not be a sole reason for pneumonia or getting cold but could assist in the process.