Breastfeeding a premature baby

[clarejane]

Our baby was 6 weeks premature & spent a week in NICU where they were very supportive of breastfeeding. We had a lot of skin-to-skin time, my milk came in well and he has been breastfeeding followed by a top up of breast milk from a bottle from about day 3.

Now we're home I'm noticing that although he sucks very rhythmically from the bottle he's much more stop / start on the breast - but has a good latch. I don't want him to develop a preference for the bottle although obviously I want him to get what he needs and gain weight & I understand that breastfeeding is hard work for the little fella!

Is it just a question of time & patience on my part? Any tips on how to get him to buckle down on the breast? Any help much appreciated - thank you.

In my experience yes its just a question of time and patience. My DS was 11 weeks early and is now 9 months actual 6 and half months corrected, and he is still bf.

Unlike term babies, and in my experience, DS was always a bit stop start on the breast, even with a good latch. It used to worry me and drive me mad, and I always carried on expressing and giving him ebm in a bottle, and in our case it was crucial that we didn't give up on bottle feeding as he had days when he just preferred bottles and I ran with that.

As for tips on getting him to buckle down on the breast, try to relax. If he goes on and off a lot, that's fine so long as he still gets what he wants. Also after all the time in nicu and scbu moving to a phase when you don't think about every mil takes a bit of time to trust it will work out.

Also don't compare your prem baby with a term baby. He will take some time to feed if he's still little, and it takes energy. Sometimes I gave ds bottles as he would take more but that was when I needed some time back. But if I did he'd have a bf one time then a bottle of ebm. I hated the while BF then top up as I felt DS got to know that he'd get a bottle soon anyway.

Other than that if ds wanted to snack all day I eventually got used to it. Also don't compare him to a ff baby on nutriprem. They will normally get bigger quicker.

It gets easier.

congratulations on your baby and for breastfeeding.

From what you describe he sounds like he is feeding like any 'new' baby does. Babies feed differently from a bottle because the teat is different, the milk flow is different and the way an artificial teat stimulates a baby to suck is different from how the dynamic relationship between a mother's nipple stimulates a baby to feed.

my keyboard is going dodgy but google 'breast compression' if you'd like some ideas of how to maximise getting milk from the breast into directly into a baby. you may also want to ring a bf helpline for reassurance.

Hello - I just wanted to give you a big congrats for BF your prem baby. My mother had similar struggles with m, I was 10 weeks pre, she pumped for the first six and then went on to establish BF and did 18 months when i self weaned. I am the healthiest person I know! :-)

Wow - well done!

I'm sure you've considered this but as it's not mentioned... have you considered offering your EBM from a cup or syringe rather than a bottle to remove the teat from the equation? It may help a little bit to stop the different kind of suckling from the breast V bottle which can cause confusion.

Just on another note, and not wanting to throw in any more work to you, but having spent time in SCBU you may be interested in donating milk if they have a milk bank to help the babies whose mums can't make enough milk for the time being?

I'm a very keen BM donator and promoter of milk banking so thought I'd mention it :) You can see more info here: www.ukamb.org :)

Ladies - thank you, so amazing to log back in to find all this good advice and support! This is my first time on MN...

Sounds like all in all we just need to relax and take our time and not expect him to feed the same as a term baby.

hildathebuilder - good to hear that someone else has persevered & that EBM from a bottle is OK! Well done, gives me hope :)

kellybronze - never heard of breast compression! will look it up now...

zimm - excellent, if BF'ing can be reestablished after 6 weeks we should be fine mixing bottle & breast - he's only 11 days old!

organiccarrotcake - hadn't thought of syringe, will look into that. i'm currently living in NYC but yes, would like to give something back to the NICU who took care of him so will look into banking.

Truly, thank you!!

Hi clarejane.
I think you've been given really good advice which I can't usefully add to. But I just wanted to add my congratulations and give you another positive story. My DD was nine weeks prem, tube fed for four weeks, then on bottles of EBM for another three weeks before she eventually latched on. She is now seven months old and we are still going strong with the BF.
It sounds like you're doing really well.