Top-up (expressed milk) for prem baby?

[stillfrazzled]

DS2 was born at 35+3, four weeks ago - his due date was tomorrow.

He also had IUGR so weighed only 3lbs 5ozs, and spent 3 weeks in SCBU.

Now up to 4lbs 5ozs (5ozs in last week alone) and is EBF.

Feeding is going well, and thanks to all the expressing I did in SCBU I have a whole freezer drawer of milk, so I was wondering about giving him a top-up bottle, maybe at bedtime.

Would this be a good idea? Is it too early, when he's only been home and ebf a week and a half? Would I stretch his tiny stomach?

Was going to ask health visitor today, but she was such an utter numpty that I thought chances of a sensible answer were low...

At this stage, I wouldn't do it routinely. The odd bottle of milk here and there is unlikely to do any harm . I would just allow him to feed as and when he needs to so as to allow the supply and demand thing to work.

Just my opinion though... Not an expert ;)

Oh, sorry! Well done btw on getting so far with it and congratulations on your baby :))

If his weight gain is now fine, why give a top-up?

We gave Dd top-ups for a while, but we had to as she was losing weight because she couldn't feed well enough to get enough in before getting exhausted (wasn't prem but had time in scbu and feeding issues). It has caused us issues with latch and bfing tbh.