Neonatal want me to take in a bottle- I want to breastfeed, help!

[Lottie86]

I was/am intending to breastfeed however when Dave phoned in today they asked him about us taking in a bottle for her (she's not up to full feeds yet and everything is currently by tube every 2hrs but she's started sucking her dummy overnight so they want us to take a bottle in). Dave said I wanted to breastfeed and I phoned back in to confirm that but the nurse I spoke to (not Iona's nurse) said that they want me to take in a bottle today.

I felt slightly pressurised into her having a dummy as I did not want her to have one at all and now this with the bottle I'm beginning to wonder if I'm actually going to be able to breastfeed with the amount of nipple confusion she's going to end up with and I really really don't want to be exclusively expressing long term again if she gets 'hooked' on a bottle and won't breastfeed!

I intend to get one of the Medela Calma bottles as they are supposed to be the best if you are using in combination with breastfeeding as they still have to suck the same to get the milk out but will this bottle still cause problems when it comes to direct breastfeeding?

Findlay's neonatal just gave feeds via tube or cup when Mums weren't there if they were/were wanting to breastfeed so I'm slightly puzzled why Iona's one are so keen on bottles

I'm going to speak to her nurse when I go in later but has anyone managed to successfully breastfeed when all feeds that were done when you weren't there were done by bottle?

 

[Marleysgirl]

Can't help with your question, but you may just find that the nurse who spoke to Dave wasn't aware of your plans to breastfeed and/or had got confused.

Speak to them when you're next in, explain your plans and ask them to continue with tube/cup feeds when you're not there. Remember, they're working for you and your child.

 

[clairec81]

Sorry not got any advice but didn't like to read and run. Good luck and hope she's getting on great.

 

[toothfairyx]

I wouldn't get worried / upset about it - I don't think they do get nipple confusion by having bottles, and I know that from the nurses point of view trying to cup feed the babies is tricky and mostly ineffective as most gets split as the babies often struggle with it.
Dummies are pretty essential I thought to helping them develop the reflexes they need to master sucking and feeding not to mention the other benefits such as lower risk of SIDS. I am convinced that nipple confusion is something peddled by the midwives / HV's to increase the pressure to breast feed. I certainly had no issues, and pretty much exclusively breast fed for several months after we were discharged and the fact he could bottle feed was a relief to be honest x

 

[freddiesmum]

i didnt "breast" feed freddie as my milk dried up after 6 weeks but with my termie i breast fed him and bottle fed him and he took to both. once the baby has developed the reflexes i cant imagine termies and preemies are different in that respect but i suppose it also depends on the baby. freddie will take any bottle given to him regardless of teat!
As for them insisting that she is bottle fed im sure they will be absolutly fine with you breast feeding instead because dont they normally advocate breast as opose to bottle??
hope you and iona are doing ok xx

 

[confused87com]

my lo was 10 weeks prem and he was tube fed whilst i learned to breastfeed. the odc pushed me in allowing bottle feeds when i wasnt there. He 'got' breastfeedin straight away and there was and never has been any confusion between bottle and boob, he was 33 weeks wen he started feeding from me
just tell them what u want....its v important for u. i am so glad i perservered, all my neonatasl friends gave up and now bottle feed, i would have regretted it

 

[Dasy25]

Hey Lottie I remember the nurses used to say to me that Ella had to learn to take a whole bottle first before being put to the nipple. I had intended to breastfeed too. Once Ella was feeding well enough i pushed for her to be breastfed. I had to combine breast and bottle due to my rubbish supply and it worked. I chose not to continue to do both however and stuck with bottle feeding. Reasons mainly due to supply and poor weight gain. Hope you get to do what you plan to. x

 

[AP]

The neonatal here didn't believe in confusion either. Dummies are good to encourage sucking (I wish I introduced one to Tori early as she point blank has nothing but her fingers)

Katy1310 and 25weeker bf their LOs though, they might be able to help.

I have the Calma BUT it's been an on/off success. Worth a go though, you could ask but Iona really needs to work for it (it comes out a tiny hole) and I think Iona would need to learn bf'ing before knowing what to do with that.

I have heard of breastflow bottles, they work in a similar way I hear, they r popular? They r in TK maxx - if u don't have one nearby I can go check out ours and send a pack up? Xxx

 

[Srrme]

My son was born at 28.6 weeks, and was in the NICU for 60 days. He was given a dummy (to encourage sucking, and strengthen his sucking reflex), and a bottle of expressed breast milk during his entire stay. I was set on breastfeeding too, but everyone kept telling me it would keep him in the NICU longer, so I allowed them to bottle feed him.

As soon as he was discharged, I began exclusively breastfeeding him, and have been ever since! It wasn't hard for him at all, and he seemed to have NO confusion whatsoever. He got rid of the dummy a few days after he came home too.

 

[cat81]

I would try to push for them to use a cup instead if this is something you feel strongly about.

With Thomas, they started by cup feeding him at night but I did later say that I didn't mind if they gave him a bottle if it would help him to get off the tube feeds more quickly. He was slow to get the hang of breast feeding and when I brought him home we were doing a combination of both but we stopped the bottle after a week or two and I'm still breast feeding him now. He hasn't really taken a bottle since, apart from one or two occasions.

I hope you and Iona are ok. x

 

[Lottie86]

Thanks everyone! I took a bottle in and mentioned again that I wanted to breastfeed and apparently it's just in case she's awake at a feed time and really wanting to suck and I'm not there. Her feeds when we were in today were all tube as she's asleep pretty much all the time so not sure when we'll get to have a first attempt at bf (or bottle) as I've no idea how long it will take her to be awake enough to have cuddles or have a try at oral feeds.

I'm desperate to get bf to work as it will make my life so much easier than having to carry on expressing and sterilising long term especially with F to look after as well. I'm just really hoping she doesn't have the same feeding issues F has as I'd love to know what something other than tube feeding is like.

That's fab if confusion isn't as much of a problem as I was fearing. Everything I'd been told at antenatal classes was how if a dummy or bottle were introduced before bf had been well established for 6-8 weeks then they'd get totally confused and unable to bf properly so I was getting all panicked.

Sandi: I've got one of those in the loft and I've got the Dr Brown preemie bottles too (and just about every other bottle ever invented ) so hopefully we'll find one she can use/they're happy with. The Calma teat looks so weird with the enormous open tip

 

[AP]

It does look scary but it literally spits out a really pathetic looking flow Tori downed it when she got the hang of it! We use mam bottles now and still breastfeeding fine (apart from those days she was being a pest )

 

[Marleysgirl]

We used the Breastflow bottles at the start with Andrew, but he seemed to prefer the C&G preemie teats that were available on the unit so we switched over to Avent bottles which fitted the C&G teats (and then "acquired" a load of them when we left).

 

[25weeker]

Holly was only cup fed twice and that was because the lady on nights was bored so it gave her something to do. After the tube came out she breastfed when I was there and bottle fed other times. She never got confusion but I was using a nipple shield at the time which is more bottle like. I weaned her off the shield about 6 weeks corrected.

I hope the feeding goes well xx

 

[Lottie86]

Thank you. After all the stress yesterday over the bottle issue and them telling me to take one in in the afternoon I assumed it meant she was ready to start oral feeding 'lessons' ... no it seems she's not at that stage yet so goodness knows why they made it sound so urgent she had to have a bottle in! I'm taking my Widgey feeding pillow in every day just in case though!

She woke up just before her feed this morning (tube) but the effort of just having her eyes open for a few mins totally wore her out and from what the nurses said when we went back in early evening to do another tube feed I'm not 100% sure she had been awake since and she seemed really unsettled after her feed so they were going to keep an eye on her so I think oral feeds will take a fair while especially with the fact that feeding problems are a known issue with this chromosome trisomy!

And here she is this morning, the first time we've seen her awake with both eyes open!!

 

[clairec81]

She's beautiful lottie. Hope your doing ok, keep strong.