Prem baby - breastfeeding problems

[PandaG]

A friend of mine gave birth 6 weeks prematurely. The baby is fine, and now home at 2 weeks old. He does not feed for long, and there does not seem to be much there either - she does not seem to get full as far as I could tell. She is also expressing, her son takes milk more easily from a bottle than the breast, but is not getting much. She is also topping him up as suggested by mw.

Any tips for increasing her supply, expressing more, or making it easier for her DS to feed?

I am going out now, but will be back later - thanks!

I have had 3 premature babies and they did tire quickly. She should drink plenty and express between feeds to up her milk. I found that expressing in the night was better as I had more milk then. If the baby is still struggling she could ask SCBU to insert a feeding tube while she gets BF sorted so he doesn;t get confused with the bottle.
HTH

Dd4 was 7 weeks early and tube fed for 3 weeks. It took a while to get her b/f for any amount of time and I had supply problems. She had weight problems but she never had top ups at all. I really really think she should see a b/f counsellor asap, try to increase te feeding and minimise the top ups.
The more baby feeds the more milk she will make. Expressing so early on must be pretty exhausting with a prem, I did it for the 1st 6 weeks but only because she was tube fed for a while.
He will take more easily from a bottle especially as he is probably getting tired a the breast in comparison to a teat??
She neads someone who knows what they are lookingat/for to whatch her feed, check the latch and give her any help or advice she needs xxxx

Sorry, wanted to add I didn't mean top stop the tops up completley at the moment, wait till she's had some 1-1 advice on increasing the b/f

ok 3rd time. Not to stop top ups immediately until she's had advice 1-1 ect....

Magnolia is right. Your friend needs some profesional help and I reckon it shoud come from the hospital if she has only been home for 2 weeks. They should have an infact nutrition coordinator or similar to advise in these situtaions.

It's always difficult when top ups are involved but if you do a search on here you'll find plenty of threads where people have established sole bfing by very slowly reducing the formula. There are also links to advice on stimulating milk production.

BTW my first baby was very small even though she was full term and she fed little and often for the first few months. Second was 2 pounds bigger and was much more efficient from the start. It makes sense when you're a little scrap and get tired quickly.

Your friend is doing really well to get this far and she is lucky to have your support.

Message withdrawn

Thanks for all your words of wisdom, I wanted some advice from people who'd been there, as my 2 fed well from the start. I will pass these all on, and suggest that she sees a b/f counsellor, as well as continuing to extoll the merits of MN!

Any other advice gratefully accepted