Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

Hi everyone, I have a one week old DS who was born early at 36 weeks and 4lbs 15 oz - he was in the NICU for five days. He has been a pokey feeder since the feeding tube came out but when we took him home he was eating 40 ml every 3 hours and the NICU doctor told us he had to keep that up.

Since he has been home it is a total struggle to get him to eat. He falls asleep almost immediately at the nipple no matter what we try to do to keep him awake. He is barely taking 35 ml right now. Yesterday he was down to 4lbs 8 oz. I have a call in to my pediatrician but I wanted to know when did your DC "turn the corner" with feeding? I am so worried that we are not doing enough and I am scared we will have to bring him back to the hospital . I am hopeful that he will get it soon but I don't want him to lose any more weight.

TIA

Re: Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

I had DD at 37 weeks and she was 6 lbs 6 oz. She fell asleep on me every time I tried to nurse her. I just left her on me for long periods of time because I wasn't sure how much she was getting. Turns out she dropped down to 5 lbs 9 oz in 5 days. I took her to the ped and turns out she got jaundice. They said it would help to top her off with formula. Once I started doing that she ate every 3 hours and in one week went up to 6 lbs 4 oz. She will be a month old tomorrow and is over 8 lbs now!!! I would say that once she reached her actual due date (Nov 21st) things really turned. She started latching on me better. She is awake more. There is hope! Don't worry, just make sure to supplement if you know they aren't nursing. That really helped me.

Re: Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

Oh, and I also started pumping right away after I tried to bf. That way I kept my supply up and I could give DD breast milk instead of formula. I actually had to wake her up to feed her for the first 2-3 weeks. Now she is starting to wake up on her own every 3 hours to feed. I recommend you get this timer called itsbeen. Every time you feed him you click the buttom and it will let you know how long its been between feedings. I also use it for diaper changes!

http://www.buybuybaby.com/regProduct.asp?order_num=-1&WRN=-817602797&sku=16741744&

Re: Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

My DD was born at 32 weeks weighing 4lbs, 14 oz. I must say that feeding was the most difficult with my DD. She came home eating 30 ml. I am pretty sure you have tried every trick in the book to keep your DS awake but here are a few just in case:

Wet Washcloth
Tapping/flicking their feet
Do not feed with them in a blanket or swaddled
Do not feed in the cradle postion, keep his head in the palm of your hand away from your body (this helped the most).
Tap the the end of bottle to stimulate sucking (this also helped tremendously).
Change Diaper mid feeding to wake him
Keep the room lit and noisey
Also, as soon as feeding is over put him back down immediately so that he may gather his strength for the next feeding. Sleep is probably the most important for him now.

I know there are many more, but honestly he will soon get it and start waking himself on schedule to eat. Just hang in there I promise it gets easier and better pretty quickly
!

Re: Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

Thanks so much for the advice. I am not BFing since neither baby has latched yet. My milk has not come in and I'm not sure it will at 7 days pp, but I am still attempting to pump and I am mixing whatever I get with formula.

It is helpful to hear that your DCs are doing well - it can be so frustrating trying to get him to eat and I am so worried. His twin brother is doing great though - just really started eating like a champ yesterday so I'm happy about that.

We are seeing a new ped tomorrow morning at 10am who is going to do a whole workup on him so we'll see where he's at tomorrow. Thanks again -

Re: Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

How long has he been home?

Neither of my girls wanted to eat for about the first 5 days home, then BOOM they changed. It was exactly how you described , tired and not eating, and then they suddenly "woke up". HTH

Re: Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

DD was in the NICU for about 4 days and she was 5 lbs 13 ounces.

I wasn't able to nurse her.. she fell asleep at the breast constantly- she also would become super frustrated and cry- b/c breastfeeding is so much harder than bottle feeding in terms of the milk coming out.

My ped said when they are under 6 pounds, they often don't have adequate "strength" to nurse directly from the breast.

I wish I had advise- but after 2 weeks of pumping, I threw in the towel and went straight to formula.

Re: Moms of preemies/NICU babies - feeding Q

Posted by dm24angel

How long has he been home?

Neither of my girls wanted to eat for about the first 5 days home, then BOOM they changed. It was exactly how you described , tired and not eating, and then they suddenly "woke up". HTH