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Premature birth

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Feeding help

4 replies

ihearttc · 09/12/2010 21:02

Just after some advice if I can please?! I had DS2 at 32+5 on 23 November. I had very sudden pre-eclampsia and they decided to induce me as I was very poorly. Luckily they managed to get 2 lots of steroids into me and induction worked incredibly well and he was born only 59 mins after they broke my waters!

He was 3lb 8oz and needed no oxygen or anything but was just put in an incubator for a couple of days to keep warm.

He was tube fed until about a week ago and has been doing brilliantly on bottles with only teeny top ups through his tube. However they weighed him on tuesday and he is now 4lb 4oz at 14 days old and they have decided thats not enough weight gain so have put up his milk amount from 36 ml to nearly 50 and he literally can't take that amount. They'd taken his tube out monday cause he was doing so well and they have now decided to put it back in again so you can imagine how Im feeling.

I was supposed to be taking him home saturday but I really really don't want to take him home with a tube in. I know many people do it but am just not happy/confident enough to do it. It really has been a nightmare 3 weeks and I just want him home now. We live 25 miles away from the hospital and I have a 5 year old as well so its very difficult.

He can suck really really well...he just gets tired quite easily and can only manage about 40ml before he gives up.

I honestly don't know what Im asking but would love any suggestions cause I really don't know what to do anymore. Ive suggested me feeding him every 2 hours so he'd get the same amount but in smaller feeds but they've said that prem babies can't do that because they don't have enough rest between feeds so they are sticking to 3 hourly. Can they actually put an NG tube down if I say no? Is that weight gain really horrific cause I thought it was actually quite acceptable??

OP posts:
crazymum53 · 10/12/2010 09:28

I seem to remember the hospital adding a protein powder to my breast milk to increase the number of calories. This did work very well. As it was 11 years ago cannot remember any more details but hope this helps.

Mandy21 · 10/12/2010 12:21

Hi there, I also remember that they added Nutriprem or something similar (a fortifier I think they called it) to my breast milk to increase the weight gain. I imagine its incredibly difficult with an older child, but I would listen to the medical advice - if they think he needs extra milk and would be better to be tube fed, I'd be tempted to go along with it, probably because things will probably change in a short space of time. I think you'll probably get him home quicker if you allow them to do that. We had weight checks every 2 or 3 days when they were close to coming home so I'm guessing that it might just be a couple more days before they re-assess it. Good luck, I know it can be really frustrating when you're desperate to get your baby home.

Mandy

jjkm · 12/12/2010 18:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

slinkyfish · 23/12/2010 14:01

My 2 were on high calorie milk (nutriprem 2)as they were so tiny. It was prescribed by the hospital and they were initially on a fortifier too, along with vitamin and iron drops. They were on the NP2 till they were a year old. There are other higher calorie milks available too such as Infatrini. Maybe that would be a better option xx

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