35 weeks - establishing bfing

[MrsHerculePoirot]

DS arrived somewhat unexpectedly at 34+6 last Thursay. He was massive at 3.51kg and has been on the neonatal unit since and is doing well, he just now needs to learn to feed himself. I have been expressing since birth and have a plentiful supply. Currently he is tube fed every three hours and I try to bf him before each feed when I am here which is about 5 out of 8 feeds. I know I am very lucky compared to many others on the unit, although I still feel weepy quite a lot at the moment.

At the moment, he sort of opens his mouth, appears to be doing a bit of rooting, has a few sucks then stops. Does anyone have any tips or could share their experience of getting bfing established? I think I just need a bit of hope that I will be able to feed him!

Congratulations on your little one!

I don't have any useful advice, but just bumping this for someone helpful to come along.

I wonder whether the BF topic might have more traffic?

That is a good idea - will post there later!

Congratulations!
His suck/swallow/breath reflex should be starting to develope well.

My ds came along at 29+6 I did lots of skin to skin kangaroo care with him. I felt it important he associate my smell with a fully tummy so we did his tube feeds on me when ever possible. DH did feeds but the only person he was fed on was me. I built up the amount of times it was offered once he could latch on until I offered at each one.
Some people recommend doing the tube feed while he was latched but I found that it made him lazy the next day.

It can be a slow process but you'll get there in the meantime enjoy all the lovely skin to skin cuddles.

Mine arrived at 29 weeks, she latched on at about 34 weeks but wasnt strong enough to get let down. I expresses to get let down going and then latched her on with a nipple shield (that gave her more purchase iykwim). Yours is a heffalump though! He will get there!

Thank you! I have been allowed to share a room with him last night and tonight and we have stopped all tube feeds and cup feeds. He is getting there slowly - nappies are too dry at moment but if they get wetter and he hasn't lost weight we might be allowed him home!

Hope all your DCs are doing well!

Hello

I was told by the nurses in SCBU that 34/35 weeks is a time when some prem babies (especially boys apparently!) seem to switch off and not really bother with learning to feed. They "take a holiday" as one nurse described it. And then suddenly at 36 weeks they just get the hang of it suddenly and come on really quickly. Hopefully that will happen soon for you.

If you continue to have feeding issues even once he's a few weeks older, it may be worth getting him checked for tongue tie (which obviously affects prem babies just as often as full term, but can be missed because of the pumping and tube feeding). Reflux is also common in prem babies, so watch out for signs of that, though you may be lucky and avoid it!

Thank you for replying! He was checked for tongue tie and doesn't appear to have reflux. We are home now, but only because we had to top up using bottles and now he won't really feed from me at all. I have contacted some breastfeeding people to try and help me - so frustrating as I think if he knew what to do he would quite like it! I don't know that I can keep up the rigorous pumping schedule forever either.

Just heard bfing supported is going to ring me this afternoon do fingers crossed someone can at least reassure me it isn't all over and maybe help me on the right track...! Thanks again.

Hi there, I hope I can offer some encouragement. My daughter was born at 35 weeks and it took a while to establish BF - she was so sleepy and struggled to suckle. We had syringe, then cup, then bottle top ups with formula and expressed but I made sure I kept offering breast as well first. It was tough but we got there after a few weeks and we are still exclusively breast feeding now at almost 6 weeks. I hope you get some good support.

Thanks so much Kate. Out of interest how long did it take to establish bfeeding? Also did you use any particular type of bottle/teat in the meantime?

We used the Tommee Tippee closer to nature slow flow. It probably took about 4-5 weeks until we stopped offering top ups but my husband would still would give one or two bottle feeds to help me rest. After about 8 weeks it all got a lot easier as she finally started to wake up for feeds and it all started to fall into place and we ditched bottles completely. I went to a breast feeding drop in clinic at 2 weeks and that gave me confidence that we were doing ok I just had a tiny sleepy baby who was learning to feed, and giant boobs so it was going to take a little while!

Thank you so, so much! I think that is what I needed to hear! We were considering swapping to those tommee tippee bottles, so going to do it tomorrow. I am hoping to pop into a breastfeeding drop in place on tues or weds next week and have someone coming hopefully to see me next Friday as although I have done this before with my daughter four years ago, I'd like reassurance that I am doing it right too, especially as I also have giant boobs!

Thanks again for posting I can't tell you how much I appreciate hearing a similar story with a positive outcome! Congratulations btw on your DD and the bfing.

I had a 35 weeker who started out in neonatal tube fed. Then I syringe fed her expressed milk and offered her boob every 3 hours. It was v hard work (I only realised quite how hard when had term second child) but worth it and I ended up bf her for 16 months. My midwife suggested putting a pinkie in her mouth at same time as the syringe and that really helped her suckle. I think it took about 5/6 weeks before we was fully boob feeding but a I said before worth the time at the start to benefit from ease of bf for the rest of time. Only you can make the call as to if it is worth it don't be made to feel guilty if you don't prem babies are hard enough work as it is in terms of lack of sleep etc. you def need supportive people around you those first few weeks I barely had an hour between feeds due to syringe, boob and express. On the plus side it will only get easier when everyone else is moaning about sleep regression and toddler years you'll be thinking it's just much easier now! Good luck!

My DS was 35 weeks and we used a nipple shield for premature babies to feed with. I also had to get my milk going for him before he started by massaging my breast and gently squeezing my nipple.
Good luck and don't be afraid to combine feed or express if needs be.

My problem with a similar prem was the unit insisting on their feeding schedule rather than the baby's. They were feeding through NGT and the baby was overfed. Once we got home and I let the baby lead, we got going nicely.
Good luck.
Oh and bf until nearly 2 after the dodgy start.

Thanks everybody, I really appreciate the positive stories. Had a good attempt earlier, with a few sucks and not as much screening. Later not so good, but am going to just keep on trying and see how we go for now! I have hop at least which is all I need for now...

I was in a similar position in January when dd was born at 33+5. It took a couple of months but she's now bf without any ebm top ups so don't lose hope - hopefully you'll be able to get there if you want to keep going.

While she was in hospital, every couple of days a nurse would say "oh she's nearly x weeks now, her suckling reflex will kick in really soon". After she came out of hdu she spent 3 weeks in scbu while we tried to get her to feed - she just either wouldn't latch on or wouldn't suck hard enough to make anything happen. One night they wanted to put her ngt back in but I just felt we were going round in circles so broke down in tears and demanded asked them to try her with a bottle. She loved it and we were home two days later after what felt like never ending attempts to bf over the previous 3 weeks.

It took about a month to get her fully breastfeeding, and during that time constantly expressing/sterilising/bottle feeding on top of trying to bf was really tiring as someone else has said. I had great support from a local bf drop in - they gave me confidence to listen to the signs my baby was giving and helped me learn a wider range of techniques to encourage my super chilled (aka lazy) baby latch on. There were big ups and downs on the way but I'm so pleased I stuck with it - I really hope it works out for you xx

Thank you, not much luck today, but will keep on trying...

Sorry to hear you had a bad day :( Keep trying though. With us it wasn't a case of her slowly learning it was more that suddenly something clicked in dd's brain - I woke up one day and it was like I was feeding a different baby. Once that had happened all the tips and advice seemed to come together so things just got better from there, but before then she had all the nurses flummoxed.

Thanks again for all the encouragement - we had 15 minutes of latching and on and off sucking this morning for the first time in ages. Before that he has mostly been screaming and turning his head away when I have tried. I suddenly feel he might get it again now eventually!!! I can' tell you how reassuring and supportive all your posts were.