How do I get bottlefed premmie to breastfeed?

[ImissMiniPop]

My little one is 5 weeks old, but was born at 30 weeks, so he's just 35+2 really :)

He was started on bottles by the NICU nurses, as we tried putting him to the breast, then bottle and then finishing off by tube, which was tiring him out and stressing me out, so we decided to concentrate on getting him bottle fed and the feeding tube out, but I really want to breastfeed.

AS he's bigger now, I've been offering him the breast first, but he's really unsettled first, he cries, his head goes from side to side, he pulls away and then cries some more, but he can actually find it and suck a little bit.

I think his record is about 20 sucks, today, :) not in a row though :( and then he just falls asleep.

I worry I am holding his head to hard, or moving it in the wrong direction, or going to obstruct his airways, all of which doesn't make for a very relaxing experience.

I had one of the breastfeeding 'helpers' try to 'help' to day, but this consisted of forcing the poor little ones head (quite hard I thought!) to the nipple and trying to force his mouth open to put it in, all of which really made him cry more.

sigh

How do I do it? Please tell me there is hope and he'll just get it one day..?

(sorry for the long post)

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/maintainsupply-pump/

kellymom.com/ages/newborn/newborn-concerns/preemie-links/

kellymom.com/ages/bf-preemie/bfhelp-preemie-2/

Congratulations on your wee one, and I'm sure that if you want it to work it can. I have no personal experience, but hopefully the links above will help. Have a look around the rest of the site too, it's a really great resource.

Congratulations!

Google breast crawl and biological nurturing (sorry am on phone can't get the links)

Essentially, you can find a comfortable semi-reclined position, strip down your clothes so there's plenty of access to your breasts, and place your baby directly onto your tummy. Ensure you are skin to skin. Your baby will be able to smell and feel his way to your breast. He should bob his head to find way to latch on. Try not to manoeuvre him too much yourself, just be calm and lightly hold him. He needs to open his mouth wide to get a good latch with.

Best of luck.

No one should be holding, let alone forcing, your baby's head....and trying to force his mouth open, dear God :( :(

Please tell whoever is in charge of bf support that this was done, and that it can harm breastfeeding by distressing babies and putting them off.

Anyone trained in bf support would not do this, ever

Oh no, I hope it hasn't put him off :(

Babies get over being put off - it doesn't have to be a permanent thing, believe me. Gentle, respectful 'handling' with no pushing, forcing, or gripping, will enable your baby to learn how lovely and snuggly the breast is :)

I am serious about the 'helper' being undertrained, by the way. It is shocking she came anywhere near a mother with a pre-term baby, or any mother in fact.

Hope today goes better for you. Have you tried 'kangaroo care'? /www.kangaroomothercare.com It's great for pre-terms and great for bf :) It's got a powerful scientific base, and your SCBU should know about it.

Thanks tictoc, we have been having lots of cuddles, looking forward to getting him home for lots more kangaroo cuddles.

Think we just need to find our own comfortable position.

and thanks to everyone else too, yesterday was a fairly stressful day and I got a bit disheartened, but feeling a bit more positive today.

Thanks tictoc, we have been having lots of cuddles, looking forward to getting him home for lots more kangaroo cuddles.

Think we just need to find our own comfortable position.

and thanks to everyone else too, yesterday was a fairly stressful day and I got a bit disheartened, but feeling a bit more positive today.

Hi minipopsmum

I can't remember if I told you this in the other thread, but DD periwinkle was exactly the same on my boob, and would more often take a bottle or tube feed, but everyone told me to be patient, she'd suddenly wake up more for feeds and 'get the hang of it'... I didn't believe them, but sure enough it was like a switch had been flicked and she suddenly got it and I was able to BF her in the day, and she was bottle fed at night, apart from the 2 nights I stayed over to practice. Unfortunately periwinkle was slow to do this- at about 38 weeks corrected, but she'd had a bit of bowel trouble along the way which probably didn't help!

So all in all I think you're doing a brilliant job, and as mum, trust your instincts as to what Is best... Loads of skin to skin and try the breast crawl- it is an amazing reflex they have!

There's another thread too about maximising expressing- the article is really good and worthwhile reading: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/1505166-Expressing-and-want-to-make-more-milk-read-this

I so hope it gets better for you and minipop makes a breakthrough. Thinking of you