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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Premmie babes - need advice!! Will milk come in normally?

21 replies

nannytania · 26/06/2007 20:33

Hi all,

As you know i am a trainee maternity nurse and my next booking maybr with a 6wk early babe.

Can someone tell me the milk situation? Does it come in normally??? Or is medication used?

I'm going through all my study material but some real-life advice on all aspects of caring for premmies wld be appreciated!!

I'll buy you all a coffee!!

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LaDiDaDi · 26/06/2007 20:36

My dd was 32 weeks and I was very unwell but my milk came in within 48hours of delivery. Dd was tube fed for several weeks though and I couldn't express sufficient to meet her demands.

Original poster

nannytania · 26/06/2007 20:40

from what I can tell this little one is coming home on the weekend. So I think he will be fed normally.
Thanks though. Hope yr little one is striving now!
Any other advice - 3 hr feeds always I assume to get the weight up!

OP posts:

mymatemax · 26/06/2007 21:05

my ds2 was born at 28 wks, my milk came very quickly after birth but because he wasn't able to suck I was only expressing.
I found it very difficult, sitting in a room at the hospital with just a photo of my ds trying to get enough out to freeze until he was well enough to take tube feeds.
I managed a little for a couple of weeks but after that he was tube fed nutriprem.
Normally they are not discharged until feeding regularly, ds2 was in a 4 hr routine by the time he came home, although coming home disrupted him a little.
The teets I could buy from the chemist were differnt from the hospital teets & he had real problems sucking, he was also very slow to feed & had reflux. Each feed could take an hour or more.
Other than that the emotional after effects of spending time in SCBU hit us all once we got home.
Hope all goes well with your visit.

LaDiDaDi · 26/06/2007 21:09

How's your ds now max?
My dd is 13months.
It's a complete pita trying to express for ages for a baby that you get to hold once a day. I swear I would have an allergic reaction now if someone gave me a breast pump!

mymatemax · 26/06/2007 21:16

lol a the breastpump, the room in scbu was actually called the milking room.. I felt like a dairy cow!
It made it worse when the woman next to me would come back into ICU saying i've filled two bottles can I have some more!
My ds is doing well, he is huge.. the tallest at playgroup, he is 4.5 & starts school in Sept he does have mild CP, asthma & undx'd behavioural problems similar to autism but really has amazed us at how well he has done.
How are you & your dd?

LaDiDaDi · 26/06/2007 21:20

So far dd is coming on well, walking, starting to talk and doing lots of pointing and babbling, becomiing annoyed that mummy doesn't know exactly what "blah blah bam bam" means .

You lo sounds like he's getting on well too.

yackertyyack · 26/06/2007 21:24

nannytania,
My DS was 6 weeks prem and milk came in quite soon after (in fact I was asleep, woke up soaked and thought i was sweating....didin't occur to me that it was my milk because I hadn't started feeding DS!!! We were lucky and I expressed enough to tube feed DS and then eventually feed him myself although it is depressing sitting alone in a freezing cold room at 4am with a breast pump for company!!!

mymatemax · 26/06/2007 21:25

She sounds lovely, clever girl walking already,

mymatemax · 26/06/2007 21:55

Any questions nannytania feel free to ask

Sixofone · 26/06/2007 22:25

DD was 3 1/2 wks early but only 4lbs 10oz so we spent a week in SCBU. They got me to express express express aaaaalllll the time right from a few hours after birth - if the mum wants to bf then I would recommend hiring a hospital grade breast pump as my dd took a few weeks to latch on.

The SCBU 4 hr routine went out of the window as soon as we got home though, felt a bit too Gina Fordy for my liking so we just fed on demand

RLR · 26/06/2007 22:43

i had my dd 6 weeks early and milk came not long after birth.

mankyscotslass · 27/06/2007 10:02

Yongest Ds came 5 weeks early, had emergwbcy c sec. My milk came in about day 4/5, which is normal for me. I was also able to express a good amount of colostrum for the baby while he was in SCBU and i was recovering form GA so could not get to him.

mankyscotslass · 27/06/2007 11:17

Meant to add, SCBU wanted a four hour feed routine, but i knew my stuff and stuck to my guns, especially when i could take him out the incubator to feed properly. THe Staff midwife went head to head with one of the nurses over it for me, cos i got in such a state. I knew he would need it more often than that, but they wanted to top up with formula and if i was worried to express of milk to keep up my supply...and they would feed him that. I know they had their reasons for doing this, but still...

Sixofone · 28/06/2007 13:57

I think SCBU do the 4 hour routine because it makes it easier for them to manage the babies, rather than because it makes any sense. That's the conclusion I came to anyway. If I had to do it all again I'd stick to my guns more.

Original poster

nannytania · 28/06/2007 15:52

Thanks all. I think I will be advising a 3 hr feeding routine, or demand feeds until the babes weight is up a bit. He is just under 5lb which isn't bad for a 34 wk birth!!
I have been frantically researching and some books advise keeping them in dark wrm rooms with lots of skin to skin contact - basically trying to replicate the womb, with not too much stimulation. Any thoughts on this?

OP posts:

mymatemax · 28/06/2007 16:58

At first my ds did not tolerate being touched at all, but this is when he was first born & v ill, he hated for example having the back of his hand stroked.. his alarms would go off all over the place, i think it was just too much stimulation for a tiny person to cope with.
Skin to skin (kangaroo) care was good for him in fact when he started to get a little better it was the only position he could manage without oxygen.
Once at home whilst he was happy to be cuddled, he never liked too much fuss but we didn't tip toe around we couldn't with 3 yr old aswell.
I did find he always needed lots of sleep & was only awake for very short periods at a time, not sure if thats a preemie thing or if he's just lazy

bewilderbeast · 28/06/2007 17:14

mine came in normally, but the problems come with establishing breast feeding. baby too weak to feed effectively, baby fed by ng tube, really crap hospital staff (with regard to breast feeding etc)

boo64 · 28/06/2007 17:22

ds wasn't prem but in nicu and then scbu for a week. He was nil by mouth for a few days and I didn't start expressing til day 3 I think which was too late I reckon.
I never got a decent amount and would express for ages and get an ounce or two.

The expressing room was basically a store cupboard with a chair - horrid!

I had a very stressful week (other stuff going on too - too long a story) so wonder if that affected things but I always wonder too whether if he had been able to properly breastfeed from birth I'd have got things established.
Interesting to hear others' experiences.

Nannytania - good luck! I think that maybe you need to just go with the flow and see how the baby reacts to noise/ bright light etc.

Does anyone think that being in SCBU affected their baby long term - sorry to hijack the thread but curious!

mymatemax · 28/06/2007 17:45

boo, I don't think SCBU has effected ds2 long term but his disabilities come from his prematurity.
I've read a couple of research articles about this but because the babies in SCBU are there because of illness, prem or some sort of birth trauma its difficult to say if any long term subtle problems could be caused by the time in SCBU or their difficult start.

babyjamas · 28/06/2007 20:07

dd2 was born at 27 weeks (she's now 15 months)- quite frankly amazed that any scbu's insisted on 4 hourly feeding - i mean when dd was being ng tube fed she was on a schedule but as the time approached for her to come home we moved gradually towards demand feeding, and that seemed to be the unit's approach. A tiny baby will need frequent feeding - dd came home weighing just under 5lbs and was feeding every hour / 2 hours during the day. I can't imagine trying to impose a 3/4 hourly schedule on a premmie, i would honestly go with the flow to start with and see about a 'routine' a few months down the line. Also like MMM, dd really liked to be left alone alot - we were always being told in SCBU about 'containment' touching, no stroking or patting, it is incredibly annoyingand upsetting for these little oneswho in the main really just want to be left quietly.

fearscape · 28/06/2007 20:15

Ds was born at 34+3 but unfortunately was in SCBU for 7 weeks, so he was pretty much like a normal newborn by the time we took him home. Milk came in about day 3-4 - agree with everyone else about sitting in a freezing room at 4am with only a breastpump for company! Fortunately though we managed to bf after a few stumbles and still feeding at 10months. If the baby is coming home presumably he/she is on sucking feeds so expressing probably won't be an issue.

I noticed that my ds did nothing (literally) but eat and sleep until his due date, then suddenly he sort of "woke up" and seemed a bit more interested in what was going on. He loved being held but wasn't too keen on stroking to being with and hated having his nappy changed. Skin to skin (kangaroo care) was very much advocated in our SCBU - I think there is evidence to show it helps prem babies get better faster.

Good luck!

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