So confused re breastfeeding...

[JadeyB]

Hi there,

I'm wondering if anyone can help.

I really want to exclusively breastfeed my little girl. She was born at 30+3 and is currently 33+4 weeks. She has been showing signs of wanting to go to the breast and has had a couple of very good attempts where she definitely took at least a few mls herself.

I've been told that when she is rooting and keen to feed, then they would look to give her a bottle as she needs to learn to suck, breath and swallow.

I'm just scared of her preferring the bottle to the breast but have been assured that premature babies don't tend to get nipple confusion. Is this right? Any advice or experience?

I just want to do what is best. The last thing i want is to give up bfing, but I dont think I could cope with expressing and then feeding when I get home! Xx

 

[danielle1987]

Congrats on your little girl. My lo was born at 25+6 and the neonatal unit he was in introduced a dummy for "non nutritive sucking" and when he was getting his milk through the hg tube we would give him the dummy to suck on so he associated the sucking with a full tummy. Luckily the unit we were in didnt give reece a bottle, When breastfeeding was introduced I made sure I was there through every feed throughout the day, and through the night they would give him his milk through the ng tube. Some babies can get nipple confusion. It happened to a few of the babies in the neonatal when we were in, And babies ended up preferring the bottles. The suck breathe swallow reflex will all fall into place when your little girl starts the bf'ing. Its amazin how quickly they figure it out. Hope you manage to breasteed. x

 

[danielle1987]

oh another thing i remembered, when me moved from the neonatal unit to a scu close to where we live, they didnt believe in giving bottles if mum wanted to bf, so as baby didnt get preferance to the bottle, they would cup feed. It was a little cup (like the one you get for putting water in ur iron) and they put it to babies lip and they kinda lap it up like a little kitten. They are also learning the whole suck, breathe swallow thing.

x

 

[25weeker]

If I was you I would put your foot down and say no to bottles until she has established breastfeeding as bottle feeding is easier so she may be reluctant to try bf. When we started establishing bf when I wasn't there they would feed her by NG, syringe or cup. During the last week in hospital when I was happy she was bf ok they suggested giving her a bottle in my abscence which I agreed too. She never had nipple confusion and it worked well as it allowed my husband to give her a bottle of ebf at night so I could sleep a little bit longer.

Had I not established bf I don't think I could have expressed and bottle fed.

Good luck xx

 

[mummy3]

I was very adamant my LO wasn't to be given a bottle, the hospital she was at thankfully I was able to stay with her to establish bfing She was fed by the ng tube for almost the first 2 weeks ( she was a 32 weeker born at 3lb 11oz) and then I would bf and she would be topped up by the ng tube depending on how long she fed. She took really well to bfing and we are still going strong at 6 days of her being 1 Unfortunately we couldn't exclusively bf as she ended up being failure to thrive and for awhile she had to have fortified breastmilk, where I expressed and special high cal formula is added to up the cals.

She never had a dummy (paci) and I can say she never once preferred the bottle over the breast, it was more the other way round and a nightmare to get her to take the bottle!

Congratulations and good luck

 

[try4girl]

I am not sure where you are but a friend of mines son was in the ICU and they made the son use a bottle and so when she went to try and breastfeed he didn't really have a interest so she went to a lactation consultant and she suggested she try a breast shield ( I think she said that women use them if they have inverted nipples?) but to try that then just slowly stop using it. So my friend tried it and soon her son was nursing without any issues. She nursed till he was almost 2.

Just a side note I think you can buy them online or even walmart if you are near one.

 

[PoodleMommy]

Thanks for asking this, as I've been wondering the very same thing (I'm so weary of pumping all day every day and the only thing getting me through it is imagining being able to breastfeed in a few weeks!), and great replies... thanks so much! I couldn't figure out how to prevent my baby from having to get some bottles throughout the day/night, since I can't live at the NICU 24 hours/day (I would if I could!)... that's interesting that they can drink from a cup!