Feeding help please.

[mummy_mi]

Hi, I have previously posted this in the bottle feeding section but none of the suggestions helped so I wondered if others to a preemie might have the same issue and could offer some help.

Chloe was born 7 weeks early and other then being small (2lb 8oz) was fine breathing on her own etc etc. We couldnt get her to latch on so she was bottle fed EBM, she came home after a month and was put onto Nutriprem 2 to help her gain weight.

The issue we have is bottles/teats, she's an angry feeder, milk dribbles out of the sides of her mouth, she splutters/chokes/gags about halfway through the bottle, she always falls asleep toward the end of the bottle and will only ever take about 70/80mls at a time. Which was fine to begin with but now she is waking every 2 hours for another feed as it isnt filling her up and she is also having poor weight gain. She is on infant gaviscon which seems to have helped a little with her vomiting issues but not completely.

Anyway we have tried Tommee Tippee bottles with size 1, 2, 3 teats, Dr Brown's bottles with diff teat sizes, Mam bottles (granted only with a size 1 teat and have size 2 on order) but she still dribbles a lot (it streams out the side of her mouth sometimes and pools under her chin), she takes even less milk when we tried these and still gets almost angry during the feed. So we keep having to revert back to the Medela bottles with a size 2 teat ( I cant find/dont seem to think they do a size 3 teat).

I'm wondering if anyone have any advice on what else to try. Has anyone else had this, is there another magic bottle out there that will help?

Thanks for reading all x

 

[Marleysgirl]

Sounds like Avent are they only type you haven't tried <grin> Andrew really disliked the TT CTN, but he gets on okay with Avent & with Tesco cheapies. Not that I'm suggesting you go and buy yet another set of teats ....

We stopped some of the spluttering & gagging with careful watching of him feeding, if it seems like he's "guzzling" (and likely to splutter) then we tilt the bottle down so that the flow is less (i.e. the weight of milk behind the current flow is less), even to the point where there is no milk in the teat for a second or two while he sorts himself out.

I'm guessing you've tried different feed positioning - very upright, 45 degrees back, 60 degrees back. (If not, try this)

Andrew was getting slower to feed and starting to drift off at the end of the feed, so we went for the assumption that the flow was too slow and moved him up a teat-size from no.2 to no.3 (Avent even do a no.4!). This has certainly solved that problem, he feeds faster and now takes 30% more milk in a feed. He still spills out of the side of his mouth, a convenient bib or towel just catches that.

HTH

 

[Foogirl]

Abby was (and sometimes still is) the same except that we are breastfeeding. If she is really hungry and I am really full, she will gulp and cough and splutter. I just take her off and let her calm down then latch her back on again.

The tips marley has given should help, but have you also considered feeding her when she is less hungry? If you are demand feeding, perhaps she is starting to show a pattern of when she gets hungry. If so, you could try feeding her 30 minutes earlier than you think she will be looking for a feed? again this worked for Abby and calmed her down when feeding. I would also talk to her and distract her to get her to take breaks and wind her half way though a feed.

 

[mummy_mi]

Hey again Marleysgirl

Yes we've tried all the positions and I guess I will just have to try some avent bottles to rule them out!

I think the Tommee Tippee ones are just too narrow in the teat so it moves in and out when she sucks, creating leakage and making her having to work extra hard. But even the Medela ones, which are basic and very soft teats still cause issues but at least she drinks the most with them.

The search continues...

 

[Josephs_Daddy]

Funny, isn't it!

Joseph won't take the Avent ones, only NUK!

 

[mummy_mi]

Funny, isn't it!

Joseph won't take the Avent ones, only NUK!

Yes, they certainly have their own opinions on the things they like! How are the NUK ones? I've never seen them in the shops.

 

[AP]

we take NUK too, its the ONLY bottle she'll take. We trie everything and it was only when we got a few NUK teats in the premade SMA glass bottles from Boots that we realised she would take these!

they have very different teats, mothercare and boots have small 5oz bottlesbut wont stock larger. you'll need to get them online!

I have read recently preemies seem to prefer NUK!

 

[CazH]

We use NUK and they are fab we also use the dummies too!!! Def recommend them you can get them online or at Boots or recently saw them in my Llloyds chemist. Freddy took them right away even when he was just 3lb. Good luck. I remember having such problems with wind and having to keep him upright for ages otherwise he would just puke. Infacol was a dodsend for us too, It gets easier trust me!

 

[embojet]

Sounds very similar to the problems we had with MOlly. I spent an absolute fortune on teats and bottles and bever had any luck, until we just decided to persevere with 1 type. She used Boots own make in the end, and it took until she was about 7 months to feed 'normally'.

 

[mummy_mi]

Thanks all, going to try avent at the weekend and persevere with them for a bit and see if she'll get used to them x