Mumsnet Talk

Tots2ten had a baby girl last week + has been in hospital since then. She was in scbu + on cpap for a few days as she had an infection and tots has been mainly expressing with some direct feeds but she is getting worried. The nurses in hdu told her dd should be feeding for 20 mins + her confidence is going. She ff all her others so i need things to tell her! Ill print this thread + give it to her dh to take in later so any/all advice or anecdotes welcome (apologies for no paragraphs, am on my phone!)

The nurses are plain wrong....what can I say? There is no reason to expect a baby to feed for x minutes or y minutes or z minutes - the length of time at the breast is irrelevant. Some babies need more time, some babies need less time - the milk does not flow to the baby in exactly the same rate every time; babies suck and swallow at different rates; babies need more, or less, at different feeds.

In fact, giving out norms like this is very, very poor. Someone who knows what they are talking about needs to watch her feed and check the baby is transferring milk effectively - that's far more important than length of time at the breast.

There may be a specialist infant feeding midwife in the hospital - can tots2ten ask to see her straight away today?

Hope she gets good help.

BTW, I am a breastfeeding counsellor with NCT.

DD never fed for more than about 10 minutes. She fed very often. As she grew it was still no longer than 10 mins, she became very efficient I guess.

thanks guys. I know they are talking rubbish, my dd1 fed for ages but dd2 would be done after 5 minutes. The bfc is on holiday apparently. Very helpful! She is getting good advice from the mw on the ward but nursery nurses are the ones doing the feeding.

thanks guys. I know they are talking rubbish, my dd1 fed for ages but dd2 would be done after 5 minutes. The bfc is on holiday apparently. Very helpful! She is getting good advice from the mw on the ward but nursery nurses are the ones doing the feeding.

Copied over from other thread I started by mistake

By littlemoog Sat 07-Nov-09 09:30:56
Is the baby gaining weight? If so then she needs to have trust in what she is doing.Breast milk is the absolute best thing she can be giving her baby given the situation with an infection. She is doing brilliantly despite all of the problems she is having since her babys birth.

My DD never fed for 20 minutes plus, she had a good suction and I had a fast let down, so it was 10 minutes tops. All that said my DD was 8lb 10 and had no other complications.

Keep going have faith in yourself the nore the baby feeds from the breast, the better they will get at it. It is a skill learnt by mum and babe. Bottle feeding makes baby work less hard as they don't have to suck so hard.

Hey, I was concerned with this two, as have just had my second baby (and had to relearn how to breastfeed) - but be reassured, my understanding is that they take most of the milk they need in the first 5 minutes, then continue to suck for however long they want to after that. Mine usually stopped around 10 mins. They're weight gain is the best indicator that they are doing ok; just keep going, you're doing the best thing.

Thanks guys, am going to get this printed off so anymore advice before I do?

hi jack,
sorry for typing - bf my twins and typing 1 fingered!

My twins were in scbu and ff for first few days due to pre-eclampsia leading to low blood sugar. - I was able to transition to breastfeeding while they were in there and still going well (nearly 8 weeks now) think i have some good advice about handling the practicalities of establishing bf despite a timetable of formula feeds in scbu. (mine were being tube fed as i didn't want them to have bottles)- I would be happy to chat to tots if it would be helpful.

cat me if tots wants to talk.

Thanks zippysmum, and everyone, have heard from tots and she says that she has refused to tell them the times of the feeding, and her and the other mother (who has a baby on hdu who they ff instead of calling her up) has insisted on no top ups.
She seems a lot happier, and with any luck will be back home tomorrow! (and I can finally have a cwtch with her new DD!)
I sent her DH a load of info from here,kellymom and others to print off and take in. It's crap that the BFC is on holiday and there is no cover. I rememebr when I tried to call teh NCT with DD1 and there was no-one in my area available to help me. Teach me to live in Wales

Hi, I am not in the uk and am going back 5 years now but...ds was in NICU for 8 weeks and was initially tube fed (breastmilk). I went on to successfully breatfeed him for 18mths. Lots and lots of skin to skin, offering access to breast as much as possible, I would also gently massage to create let down in early days so it was easy for him to get the gratification etc...tell her to stick to her guns re top ups and use her instincts re timings etc..she is doing fantastically.

Just wanted some more support really; my DS was in SCBU for 2 weeks as born prematurely. Once he got going with his feeding he hasn't stopped and we are still going at 8 months. Congratulations to tots2ten and hope all goes well. (By the way, we had a similar "he must feed for x minutes" but it was 15 minutes! Shows how random it is)

Thanks everyone.
Update from tots, she is hoping to be home tomorrow as the antibiotics end today. Her DD is feeding well and she sounds really positive. Fingers crossed she'll be home(as her DH is looking a little frazzled)

She had a midwife who is also a BFC on the ward last night and after chatting to her the MW called thre SCBU and told them never to time feeds, so with any luck tots has been the catalyst to solve that problem for future mothers too! Ooh, just had another text, apparently the nurse in quesiton has been removed from SCBU, hah, serves her right!