Please help! Weaning off feeding tube and transition to breastfeeding

[Feedingnightmare]

Hi all
DD is 4 days old and latched beautifully half an hour after birth and had a decent feed. Unfortunately she got poorly quickly and was then tube fed for a while...and now it's like she's forgotten how to latch! Or rather, she doesn't associate latching/sucking/swallowing with the feeling of fullness.

Currently we are in a cycle of her being hungry and rooting around, me offering the breast, and then her either gagging on my nipple, getting hangrier and irritated, OR she actually does latch on and suck- the duration of the sucking and whether she swallows varies. Neonatal nurse then tops her up with formula or EBM via her feeding tube.

How do we break this cycle? I've literally spent the last 48 hours constantly offering the breast. My milk has come in and I don't respond particularly well to electric pumps to I am worried about mastitis and also my supply fizzling away if DD doesn't crack it soon.

I'm considering using an SNS to replace the feeding tube but this too would require her to actually latch on...and this is not always guaranteed. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Can I turn this around? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Hi
Congratulations on your new DD.

My babies were tube fed and I remember the transition to boob/bottle - it was long and difficult but they were premature and not really able to suckle for quite a while. I think your baby probably will get the hang of it quickly if you can keep putting her to the breast, frequently. She’s probably just getting over her little wobbly start with the illness.

I did express using the pumps at the hospital- I was told to pump every 3/4 hours. What’s the issue for you? Don’t worry if it looks like you can’t pump much. What comes out and what you can actually supply the baby directly can be very different. Also at 4 days your baby’s tummy is so, so tiny.

Like you I would begin with breastfeeding and record amount of time baby latched and suckled well. Then top up with EBM or formula via NGT. I might then try to breastfeed again if they were awake enough but not frantically, hangrily rooting around. Sometimes I also woke them a bit before they were ‘due’ a feed, so I could attempt to latch them before they were bawling. As they gained weight and became better at breastfeeding we reduced the amount we were giving them via the tube.

It is knackering, I know. Make sure you’re eating and drinking well and sleeping as much as you can when you’re not feeding, changing nappies etc.

Dummy dips will help your little one associate sucking to getting fed. Mine was in NICU for 6 weeks (not premature) and had the NG tube in for the majority of the 6 weeks. One thing that we did to help him want to suck on the bottle is dummy dips. So express some milk, dip the dummy in some milk and give that to your DD whilst she’s getting topped up by the NG tube.

As the above posted said, how come you’re worried about expressing? You should be able to express and store milk often so hopefully you’d have no issue with mastitis? Is there a breastfeeding support team who’s able to offer advice on the ward? In the hospital I was in, there were two women who’d support all mums that wanted to breastfeed