Newborn losing weight - tube feeding

[Allaboutthecake13]

Just looking for a hand hold and if anyone has had a similar experience.

Baby was born 3 days ago at 39+2 (long induced labour, normal vaginal delivery) at 7 and a half pounds.She seems to have been feeding really well - midwife and lactation consultant have remarked on how well she latches. However after 40 hours without a dirty nappy and her seeming a bit lethargic (as well as looking more yellow - midwife yesterday said she had mild jaundice) we've ended up back at hospital and doctors are very concerned that she has lost 12% of her birth weight. Since we've been admitted I've tried Expressing but it seems there just isn't the milk supply there so she had 30ml of formula which seemed to go down well. Just woken her to feed her again and she breastfed for a couple of minutes then nodded off again. Tried formula and she took some but only 20ml, even when when a nurse tried. So now they are putting a tube in and tube feeding her.

I'm just so concerned and feel so hopeless to help her.

Any one had any similar experiences?

Yep... my DS didn't have a suck swallow breathe reflex. It looked like he was feeding well but he wasn't. He was using more energy to feed than he consumed. He had a tube put in and we kept it for 6 months until he could finally feed. It becomes second nature after a while. The stress of not feeding goes away !!
We used a formula called infatrini which was amazing as it has extra calories !
My son now has a gastrostomy which is much easier than an NG and he can't pull it out!!!! He does though have lots of disabilities so don't stress.
Another mummy on the ward had similar circumstances and her boy we still see now and us a lovely 7 year old with no issues!!!
NG feeding is easy!!! Stop stressing ... here if you have questions !!!!

We were admitted when ds was one day old (had a home birth). Over the course of a couple of days he stopped feeding. Was treated for jaundice and then tube fed. He's 13 weeks old now and doing amazing. Was only tube fed for about 24 hours.

It was scary, stressful and just hideous. His lethargy was caused by the jaundice and an infection which was cured with 5 days of antibiotics

Thanks both. Good to hear both of your DCs are doing well.

Double Carrick - sounds like a very similar situation. I am sure the tube feed will do her good it's juts so horrible to see her so tiny and unwell and feel completely powerless to help

Its so scary. The helpless feeling, not being able to do something that should be so natural. Feeding an infant can be so hard if they're unwell and the less they feed, the weaker they get and the less energy they have to feed.

Just keep your chin up. It won't last forever. We bottle fed in the end as by the time he had the strength to breast feed he'd gotten used to the bottle.

Be prepared for them to put her under a light lamp and to start checking for infection if things don't turn around quickly.

Babies are strong little things.

Keep updating and I'll happily check back and keep you company. My story is slightly more complicated than I've told but I don't think the rest is relevant right now xx

AllAboutTheCake It sounds like a rough few days, I hope all goes well from her for your little one. I don't have any personal experiences of tube feeding but your little one is in the best place and being looked after so try and get a bit of rest yourself while you can so that you have the strength to look after her soon

My DD was tube fed from 18h old because of prematurity. Obviously the underlying issues will be different with your baby, but I can advise with expressing/transferring to BFing if that's helpful? Has your milk come in yet? Is your DD having regular blood sugar checks?

My DS was tube fed at 4 weeks as we were admitted to hospital for a breathing issue and he needed a ventilator. Our experience was a bit different as they had to keep him on minimal feeds to get clear blood tests, so he was miserable and losing weight on the tube. This won't be the case for you though - that was all the underlying issue. The actual tube feeding itself was very easy and painless. I know it's hard to see them with tubes and wires but it's to help your baby.

Once she's regained her strength through tube feeding, she'll have more energy to drink from a bottle and you can probably go on to formula feeding if your milk supply doesn't come in? Our DS is FF and thriving now having regained all the weight and then some from his time in hospital.

Allaboutthecake, hope you have had a better day and things have gone well.

I hope someone has explained to you that expressing large amounts on day three-four is unlikely. Milk may not have come in.

Hope too you have been supported to keep your baby skin to skin and to BF direct, perhaps with help to ensure feeding is effective - someone needs to observe closely. I can't imagine tube feeding would be anything other than a very short term intervention - once this early crisis is over, there may well be no reason not to breastfeed fully though maybe you will need some good support at first.

I can endorse from my experience what tiktok says - I was only able to express tiny amounts of milk (by hand) until day 4, when my milk came in and I started getting larger volumes out with the double pump. By day 5 we'd moved over from formula to EBM down the NG tube, with a little direct BFing and by 13 days DD was tube free and fully BF. I was amazed at how quickly things could turn around but I did need to be quite pushy to get the right support in hospital.

Hope things are looking up for you and your DD now. Do update if you feel like it.