need to get 8 day old breastfeeding post surgery

[hairymelons]

8 day old DS had surgery last thurs, was nil by mouth until yesterday. Started syringe feeds of EBM yesterday and he tolerated well so started BF this morning.

He's still not very interested though, have only got a couple of 15 min feeds into him. Am about to start skin to skin, will stay with him all night tonight so I can feed him whenever he stirs- doing 3 hourly up to now but that doesn't seem enough to me.

His lack of appetite is worrying me- don't know if he's a sleepy baby or if it's after effects of surgery but anyway, docs are twitching already and talking about top ups which I don't think will help him want to feed. He's attaching well, has a gobble then drops off.

How else do I get him interested?

He's on IV fluids and urine output being monitored so I'm not concerned about him getting dehydrated, just his lack of interest in feeding. Anyone managed to get a sleepy/ poorly baby feeding well?

On phone so apols for paragraphs etc. No signal in ward so will check back in a couple of hours.

TIA

Hi, hairy - hope things are going ok. I'm so glad you got the medical help that was needed.

It will take time to get ds interested, but you are doing everything right. If you can be skin to skin/kangaroo mother care for as much of 24/7 as you can, you'll continue on the right road.

At the same time you need to protect your milk supply with frequent, effective expressing, 8 x in 24 hours, and he can have that however you can best get it into him.

Hope others will come here with their experiences.

When DS2 was hospitalised with viral meningitis at 10 days, I expressed every 2-2.5 hrs to preserve my supply. He had an NG tube initially but pulled it out after only 1 feed and I didn't have much luck syringe feeding him. He was on IV fluids, so like you I wasn't worried about dehydration.

I kept him on a pillow on my lap or next to me on the bed (skin to skin) pretty much 24hrs and offered each time he stirred. Eventually he started feeding when he was well enough to take interest. The nurses just worked around me and DS.

Hope things improve asap. Hugs to you too, as it's a tough experience having a little one in hospital.

Also, the hospital provided the pump and cold water sterilised everything. They stored the EBM, but would only keep it for 6 hrs before chucking it.

How are they planning to give him top ups? Surely ebm would be better if they insist, alongside bf?

hi hairymelons. When my DD had her surgery at 3 days old she was fed EBM via an NG tube once she'd passed the nil by mouth stage.

in terms of visiting her my DH and I went to the ward in the morning in time for her 10am feed and stayed there for her 1pm feed. If I was really lucky I got to BF each time but if there was a ward round going on (which happened at least 4 times a week) we were banned from the ward and so I had to express. I then used to express at home in the afternoon before heading back to the hospital in the hope of catching her 7pm and 10pm feeds. I'd then get home at about 11pm and express again before going to bed. The alarm would be set for 6am the next day to start expressing all over again.

The hospital would freeze my milk and give it to her in measured amounts via the NG tube whenever I wasn't there.

She was in SBCU for nearly two months and had the NG tube in place until her last week. I was then able to carry on BF her at home until she was 10 months old.

I guess I'm telling you all this to give you hope that it is possible to keep up a good milk supply even if you are not able to physically BF at every feed. Would the Drs not consider giving your DS an NG tube rather than making you give him FF at this stage? I know it doesn't help you with getting him to take to BF but it would allow you to keep expressing in the hope that once he is properly over the operation and you are both more comfortable with the hospital environment, he might start to take to the breast better?

I don't know what else to suggest but my heart goes out to you as its not an easy situation to be in. good luck with getting the BF going better

My cousin's DD had to be tube fed expressed breast milk until she was three months, They used a specially designed dummy, it was really long, and mimics a breast, I'm not sure of the make, but something like that could perhaps help to preserve/improve his latching while bfing gets established?
My cousin managed to go straight on to bfing after 3 months of tube feeding and that dummy.

minty - you were banned from the ward when there was a ward round?

From the bedside of a tiny baby?

That's utterly shocking. Was this in the UK?

My DD had surgery at 2 days old, and couldn't feed orally until about 2 1/2 weeks. It was a nightmare getting her to breastfeed, but I just kept trying. The hospitals (two!) were very good, no talk of formula at all and encouraged me.

While we were establishing bf she had EBM top ups by NG tube, which were gradually phased out as she took more by mouth. She was very sleepy though and I had to wake her for feeds for weeks.

I expressed with a hospital pump in the night while she was in hospital and I wasn't.

I'm still bfing her now, 17 months on...in fact I can hear her upstairs now shouting 'milk!' as her DH gets her into her ppajamas!

Oh and Tiktok, we had to leave the ward in one of the hospitals when there was a ward round. It was confidentiality apparently.

yep tiktok, as shanti said due to confidentiality all parents were barred from the ward (6 bedded room)during ward rounds. i guess if one baby was in a bad way or needed particular treatment the doctors didn't want other parents to hear, maybe in case they met up with the baby's parents before they had a chance to talk to them themselves?

I HATED ward rounds, particularly having rushed in especially to feed and then having to go and spend time in an expressing room rather than hold my precious baby. I remember well one morning when three of us mums from the same ward were all stuck in the parents room waiting for the round to finish. The SBCU counsellor walked in... lets just say she probably wished she'd picked a better time as we were all absolutely furious.

we were at St Georges in Tooting by the way

On phone again and can't seem to preview so sorry if this is a bit garbled.

Thanks so much everyone. Sorry to hear some of you had such a rough start.

Stayed on chair next to his bed last night so was giving him an hour or so on the breast, then expressing then having a snooze in 3 hrly cycles. He feeds well (hungrily) for 3 minutes or so then conks out and flutter feeds on and off the rest of the time. I have him stripped to his belly, blow on his face and tummy and annoy him as much as possible but he's not for feeding. Even when wide awake he just hangs out at the breast. I've tried syringe top ups and he's not interested either. So, I think his appetite is the problem. Don't know if this is normal or not.

Have requested to see breastfeeding nurse from maternity unit so can rule out problems with latch.

Thanks again, you've all spurred me on :)

Must say paed told me to come back if he didn't open bowels overnight and admitted us straightaway the next day. Hospitals have been wonderful, I have no complaints at all. Sorry, top ups mentioned we're ebm not formula.

Please don't worry about topping up with EBM, it will preserve the supply and your DS is likely to be tired after the surgery. My DS was in NICU then SCBU and had top ups with EBM for all the time he was there. He is now still BF but those top ups kept his strength up.

My DS was prem so different but I had a friend whose LO had bowel surgery. She was very tired and the need to sleep at least at the beginning outweighed the need to feed. That can be very normal as feeding (particularly BF) takes a lot of energy for the LOs. If your DS feeds hungrily I am sure he will get it when he gets his strength up.

tiktok It is absolutely normal to be excluded in NICUs during ward rounds. As minty said its for confidentiality as the babies are entitled to that just as much as adult patients are. You have to remember that there can often be 6 babies in a very small area, and they are often very ill or unfortunately dying. I have known many parents who have been advised that their babies may not survive but it was the parents who told me their circumstances. Just imagine what it would be like if I'd have overheard it from a doctor whent he parents weren't there. It would be great if their was the space etc that parents could stay but there isn't. There isn't even one to one nursing care for NICU babies. In my case the ward rounds drove us mad, but mainly because the whole system was set up so that nothing was timed for my postnatal care to take place at the same time as those dreaded ward rounds.

Hairy hang in there it does get easier even with a shaky start