Can tube fed babies 'loose' the sucking reflex?

[lentildiva]

Hello

I was interested if anyone new if babies who are tubefed because they are premature/ill can 'loose' the routing/sucking reflex if they don't have the oppoertunity to try and breastfeed for a long time, weeks or longer after birth.
Any info on this will be much appreciated.

i actually don't have direct experience of this, but i believe prem babies are often given dummies to help with the sucking reflex aren't they?
and also, even a tubefed baby can be put to the breast and allowed to latch on

I think they lose it quite a long time after their due date.

DD was tubefed, born at 33 weeks, she actually couldn't physically latch til she reached around 35-36 weeks. Definitely didn't lose it in the time she was tube fed.

My dearest cousin's baby was tubefed, as she was born at 26 weeks.

My fab cousin expressed for some weeks, but this was tubefed to the baby anyway, so no sucking reflex noted. Baby was never breastfed, but began to suckle on a bottle of EBM at about 9 weeks post-delivery (so about 35 weeks after conception) - I was there to see it, quite a marvellous sight!

What's happening for you, lentildiva?

Ds 33 weeks didn't develop sucking reflex until 36 weeks and even then took at least another couple of weeks to get the hang of it. There were 28 weekers who managed to maintain sucking reflex despite the longer time.

A good website for info on prems is Bliss.

My second baby was born at home and I was able to have a great start to breastfeeding her. But, she had been born with a serious bowel defect which came to light when she was three days old. If she had been born in hospital,she almost certainly would have been put in an incubator and I wouldn't have been allowed to feed her until she was fully assessed or possible operated on. As it was, she had a three-day 'test run' of digestive system because of the homebirth and no Drs looking at her. Luckily this test run meant that there was never this seperation and because she worked well enough with what she had, the surgery was put off until she was three months. It was all very flukey really.

We are now thinking about having another baby and are thinking about seeing a genetic counciller. My babies condition is usually just a 1-5000 occurance but can run in families and I think it might be 1-100 now that it would happen again or more if it's a genetic thing. I know not managing to breastfeed a baby that was born and needed surgery or investigation from birth would be the least of my problems, but I am trying to address all the things that make me feel scared about having another baby, one at a time, to help me sort my head out about it!!! I know it may sound stupid, but I will still like to know what could happen if I did have another baby that needed surgery straight away.

I hope you can understand!!!

Why would they have operated on immediately in hospital and not with a home birth? Ime they would assess and do what is right for that baby. The care ds experienced as a poorly baby was always conservative rather than interventionist. Has your paed consultant said they would have operated immediately?

Babies in incubators aren't prevented contact with their parents!

my cousin's dd had an an unattached bowel, this was known before birth, she suckled briefly when just born and was then tube fed ebm until she was nearly 5m, my cousin then managed to move on to bfing her after her op (she had to wait for her oesophagus to grow enough to be attached and was in hospital for the entire time)
whilst she was tube fed they gave her a special dummy - longer than a normal one so it stimulated suckling.
hth

MollieO

If the bowel hasn't developed properly, it can vary greatly from case to case.

There is no question that I would have been allowed to feed her if had been spotted after the birth Not least until she had had numerous test and scans and these had been passed on to specialists. When baby's like my daughter are born they have to be been fully assessesed to make sure waste was able to pass through them. When the neonatal team found out I had been feeding her for three days in her condition, they literally pulled her out of my arms and rushed her into the high dependancy unit when we arrived with her, even though she didn't seem unwell.

Protective colostmys have to performed in cases like my daughters within the first months anyway. So as for being conservative MollieO, if they were not confident that she could 'work' safely, which is tricky itself using scans, if there was any doubt, given that surgery needed to be done a short while down the line anyway they may well have operated on her. The pediatrician who discharged us said that they were only doing so because she had "proved that she could remove her waste".

I'm rambling on now, but I was just interested that's all.

RobynLou, that's fantastic that your cousin did that. It really answers my question too!