Expressing for 4 week old on IV drip - advice please!

[Thesunrising]

4 week old EBF ds admitted to hospital yesterday with bronchiolitis. Born 10 days over due date on 50th centile with no known health issues.

After initial obs DS was fed expressed milk through a nose tube every 2 hours and after breathing became more difficult, docs took decision to put him on IV drip, as digesting milk through his tummy was causing him to use too much energy. He will prob be on drip for 36/48 hours.

So - since coming to hospital I've been expressing every three hours to maintain supply and provide milk for the feeding tube. I have a couple of concerns, namely:

• am I expressing/pumping at the right intervals? I'm producing a lot more milk than is needed (currently no milk needed) and wonder if I might be pumping too much? Could I manage on a bit less of a punishing schedule without risking supply?

• mainly worried about getting DS back on breast. Had a rocky start (pain, cracked nipples, latch and positioning etc) which I've been working through with support of weekly bf group and volunteers. Thought i had cracked it in the last week, so am worried that once DS is ready to go back on the breast we will be back at square one. Will he have forgotten how to suck, will the pain start all over again? I don't think we will be discharged until DS has had 8 hours of independent feeding on me. There are no lactation consultants in this hospital and I'm worried that in very stressful circumstances (ward full of crying babies and beeping machines) I'm going to struggle to successfully reattach him and get him feeding well.

Sorry for long post, but any wise advice gratefully received. Thanks!

When DS was in SCBU I think I expressed 3/4 hourly and once in the night. It seemed to maintain supply. But it was a while back so can't remember the details. You can freeze all the milk you are expressing and give it to him by bottle / use when weaning.

Can't help with the rest but you might be able to get an external LC or BF counsellor to come in and help.

Remember you can always freeze it for later use.

When I was expressing and DD1 was in SCBU, I decided not to express in the night because I wanted to save my energy for when she came home. I expressed 3 hourly through the day, including about 10pm and 7am. That seemed fine to maintain supply (like you, I was producing much more than she needed).

Sorry to hear that your DS is poorly. I would try not to worry about re-trying the breast until you're there. As in, don't second-guess problems before they arise. If it's tricky, deal with it at that stage (with some of the help you've already got in place). Remember that you already know 100% more about bf than you did 4 weeks ago...

Ds1 was prem, and I expressed while he was I'm Scbu for two weeks. Then at 5 weeks he was very poorly with septaceamia, and was on a drip. His first feed was a bottle, but then back on bf, I expressed every 3 or so hours, but went for spans of longer at night, or when I managed to get some sleep.
I don't remember any difficulty getting him back to bfing when he was better, not anywhere near as hard as it was to get him to feed for the first time in scbu after being tune fed. I think your D's will remember and you too. I know it is easy to say but try not to worry too much about it at this stage.
I'm so sorry to hear about your poor Ds and poor you. It is such a terribly hard time.
Ds2 who is 3 was in recently twice with pneumonia, it was so hard. The wards were full of babies with bronchiolitis. Thinking of you.

Hope someone like tiktok with specialist bf knowledge will see your thread, but in the meantime this kellymom page has some advice.

It says you can space your pumping sessions but not to go longer than 5-6 hours without pumping in the first few months. If you aim to pump at least 8 times a day, that might mean pumping more often during daytime to stretch it out at night. At 4 weeks, your supply has not yet settled down, so getting in at least one pumping session between 12-4am, when prolactin levels are at their highest, will help maintain your supply.

Good luck and hope your little one recovers quickly.

Thank you all for your advice and reassurance. I was allowed to try DS on breast this afternoon for a comfort feed but he only latched on properly a couple of times and bobbed off quite quickly. I don't think he had th energy to hold up his head, the oxygen pipes up his nose were restricting him too. Because of all the tubes attached to him it was difficult to try different positions and I ended up a bit of a sweaty mess. However - was reassuring to see that he still had rooting instinct and was trying to latch.

Hopefully once he's a bit stronger and some of the tubes have been removed he'll be able to have a longer feed.

Thanks again everyone.