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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Very urgent help needed - nb in intensive care

65 replies

zgaze · 25/01/2011 20:37

My sister had her son Saturday morning, v long back to back labour ending in ventouse, but all seemed well and they were discharged and went home Sunday. The baby was very sleepy and did not feed much - would sit with the nipple in his mouth and not do anything with it. Finally seemed to get the hang of it yesterday morning and fed a few times but short feeds, then fed on and off pretty constantly through last night. I saw her Sunday and said that the baby looked very jaundiced, apparently on Monday looked even yellower...midwife finally turned up this afternoon (we'd rung and chased from Sunday!) and sent them straight to A&E.

He's now in intensive care under the lights, they want to put a tube into his stomach and feed him formula while running a battery of other tests. My other sister and I are both breastfeeding and have offered to express instead of the formula but told 'we don't do that in this country'(!) But this isn't really my question, I'm presuming they will do what they need to to get the baby well. Its really that my sister is desperate to breastfeed once this is all over so I've told her to ask for a hospital pump and get expressing. How often should she express to try and get and maintain her supply? bearing in mind her milk has only just started to come in.

Sorry this is long - no mental energy to try and edit. Any help welcome. Thankyou.

OP posts:
toddlerwrangler · 25/01/2011 20:41

Sorry, no advice as FF is my bag, ut really hope our sister gets the support she needs and baby picks up soon.

eviscerateyourmemory · 25/01/2011 20:44

I think it is every 3 hours, including at night, hope that someone will correct me if I am wrong. Are the nurses at the hospital not helping her out with this?, that should be part of their role.

whomovedmychocolate · 25/01/2011 20:44

Hiya

Every four hours. He needs her milk, it will help him. Your milk too if you can express it and get it to the hospital quick sharp - do not tell them it's from you!

Good luck to all of you, it's very scary but most babies, even with severe jaundice, come out fine. :)

mamadoc · 25/01/2011 20:48

I did every 4 hrs including overnight when my DD was tube fed in SCBU as newborn. I was able to get colostrum even before the milk came in. A hospital grade double pump is definitely required which hopefully the hospital will give her use of or can be hired direct from the company (mine was Medela). DD only had a little formula because I was able to express all she needed quite quickly. It didn't affect our ability to bf long term so please tell her not to lose hope.

mamadoc · 25/01/2011 20:50

Do they not have a breastmilk bank if they won't accept yours? You may have to ask. They had one at my hospital but I wasn't offered and only found out afterwards through a friend who donated.

GColdtimer · 25/01/2011 20:50

Exactly the same thing happened to me with dd2 a year ago. Firstly it's terrifying but the light treatment really works. I expressed every 3 hours on a hospital pump. I started bf-ing as soon as she was out of nicu and on the ward. She never needed formula and I have only just stopped breast feeding.

theborrower · 25/01/2011 20:53

Am sure that someone will be along soon - TIKTOK!, but when I had my DD (who's now about 6 months) she just wouldn't latch and so I had to express at every feed, which was supposed to be about 8 times a day. The hospital should also be teaching her how to hand express as this may be more effective at this early stage, or so I believe.

Hope baby and mum are ok

GColdtimer · 25/01/2011 20:54

Meant to say much love to your sister. It is scary and exhausting.

theborrower · 25/01/2011 20:55

Ooops, x posted with everyone else!

lazygaze · 25/01/2011 21:02

I'm the other sister... so upsetting that they won't let us express feed for our little nephew when our milk is right there and probably very similar to our sisters.
Our mum says it is very easy for your milk to dry up very quickly if you are stressed, is this true?

StewieGriffinsMom · 25/01/2011 21:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

moonstorm · 25/01/2011 21:11

She needs to pump regularly - there will be minute amounts at first. Agree with you expressing and not telling them... The baby will benefit from bm.

GColdtimer · 25/01/2011 21:12

She needs to find a nurse that will help her. I had brilliant help at the JR in Oxford but did need to ask and say my preference was to give breast milk. I honestly felt the most important thing was for me to give her my milk so focussed on expressing and it helped combat the stress of it. Please pm me if you want to chat. It was a horrible time and seeing your tiny baby hooked up to god knows what is hard.

RufflesKerfluffles · 25/01/2011 21:17

Not an expert, but I think I've previously read that if exclusively expressing, you should aim for at least 8-10 times per day, with at least one session properly in the middle of the night (something like between 1am and 4am?)

MamaChris · 25/01/2011 21:27

ds1 was tube fed from birth. I expressed on hospital double pump every 3 hours, including at night. they mixed my milk with formula to make up the required volume, and I was making enough milk myself by day 5. we went on to bf till 15 months. advantage of tube feeding, horrible tho it looks, is that there are no worries about nipple confusion. I used to put a little milk in his mouth with my finger while tube feeding so he'd get an idea of taste.

do hope things get easier for your sister soon.

PlasticLentilWeaver · 25/01/2011 21:30

Ruffles sounds about right for the first few weeks, which hopefully it won't be that long.

And yes, she needs to be firm that this is what she wants. It took about 18 hours to get a pump when DS1 was admitted with breathing problems at 9 weeks old as they were 'too busy' to find one (having expressed amazement that anyone was still BF at 9 weeks)

I'm surprised they won't take your milk given that it is possible to donate milk.

Original poster
zgaze · 25/01/2011 21:30

Thankyou so much everyone - I'll pass all this on. So bloody frustrating that theres a practically unlimited supply of perfectly good breastmilk from us two and yet they're giving him formula right now Angry. I've told her to seek out the breastfeeding nurse or whatever (hope the hospitals got one) and ask for as much support as they can give her.

I'm hoping it is just jaundice but from the garbled info I've had from my mum who is there with her it sounds like they are worried its more serious. She's rhesus negative and thats been mentioned as a possible factor - anyone have any ideas?

OP posts:
PlasticLentilWeaver · 25/01/2011 21:31

And I hope things pick up soon.

Phone not good for netting.

HairyMaclary · 25/01/2011 21:38

I did every two hours from 8am to 10pm and then set my alarm for 3am and did an express then. I double pumped with a hospital grade pump. I got tiny amounts to begin with but by the end was getting loads.

Every four hours will not be enough to begin with as when the baby is not suckling you need to pump more frequently as the pump is not as effective as a baby. I continued this schedule for 6 weeks until my baby (also tube fed, prem and ill) was able to feed by himself.

Good luck to you all.

sheeplikessleep · 25/01/2011 21:40

agree with the others. why not express and pretend it's your sisters milk?

i had the same with ds1. he was jaundiced and lost weight - tube fed. i expressed every 3 hours.

the scbu nurse told me that it is a good idea to b'feed at the same time as they are being tube fed (when they are well enough). baby then associates the full feeling in their tummy with sucking on the breast. even if they aren't getting much through the breast, they will make the association. not sure if it is true, but thought was worth saying.

good luck to your sister. it's horrible seeing babies being tube fed and the billibed, but it does work.

wishing your nephew a speedy recovery.

GColdtimer · 25/01/2011 21:41

Don't know about being rhesus neg but I know they checked my blood because they were concerned about the levels of bilirubin and wanted to make sure there was no incombatibilty. Her levels went very high very quickly and they were worried about the underlying cause. It sounds like your sister is in a similar situation. They also then thought she had a heart condition (she didn't) and identified some kind of infection. They prepped her for an exchange transfusion but she didn't need one.

It sounds like they could be trying to identify the cause of the jaundice but in the meantime they will be monitoring his bilirubin levels carefully to see if the light treatmentvis having an effect vthey should know within hours if it helping. If it isn't it could mean there is another reason for the jaundice. From my experience they rule out the really serious stuff first which can bs very alaming.

Hope some of this majezsense. I am on iPhone and it's hard to edit.

OnEdge · 25/01/2011 21:45

When this happened to me, I breast fed her whilst the nurses fed her through the ng tube. They fed her my expressed breast milk and topped it up with formula. I pumped every 4 hours.

Label your milk as hers - makes sense .

Hope things normalise soon.

GColdtimer · 25/01/2011 21:45

Just re read. What I am trying to say is that they also worried dd was more seriously I'll than she ended up being but they just have to rule everything out which can be alarming. I rely hope the light treatment starts to work. Xxx

Original poster
zgaze · 25/01/2011 21:45

Twofalls - that sounds exactly what's going on. Ties in with the garbled stuff I was told. Thankyou.

OP posts:
pooka · 25/01/2011 21:46

I'm rhesus neg and with ds2 (my third child) he was born and well, but then developed haemolytic anaemia (haemolytic disease of the newborn, also known as Rhesus disease).

Strangely, he didn't have jaundice, and thankfully was picked up when the haemotology department contacted paediatrics about me having raised anti-d (despite having had the anti-d jabs during pregnancy and after delivery of dd and ds1 - who were both Rh pos like DS2). He had a blood transfusion and perked up very quickly.

I did think that it was more of an issue with second and subsequent pregnancies, when the mother has developed antibodies to positive blood if there has been a sensitising event (i.e. labouring/bump trauma and so on). BUt could be completely wrong.

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