Baby born 36+6 and worried about mucus

[Lizzy86]

Still in hospital with baby

He won't latch on to breast but is taking colostrum through syringe and a little artificial feed to bulk him up.

He sleeps a lot but is constantly windy and has a lot of mucus. He was born at 1.38am on 9th April. What's so scary is yesterday whilst he was sleeping on his back he struggled to bring up the sick/mucus and basically went blue. I quickly picked up up and tried everything to help him out but midwife had to takeover. I feel useless and worried all the time about this now.

Any advice, similar concerns?

Congratulations on the birth of your son
I can't give much advice as my dtds were born at 33 and in nicu, however, I was shown techniques to help in situations like this. Please ask the midwives to give you guidance , they should support and encourage you. Please don't feel useless, as in many aspects of live you need to be shown. Also it is still early days. You will be fine.

Congratualations. I can't help with mucus but had twins at 35+3. I did not realise that the sucking relex is the last one to come along! But once they get going, there is no stopping them.

Keep asking. There will be different people on each shift, so if you do not get an answer, the next person may have it.

Lizzy my DD was born at 40+5 but was extremely mucousy - I think because of her very fast birth. She also did the thing of basically choking on her milk/mucous the first two nights - absolutely terrifying. But the mucous did clear after a couple of days, so hopefully your DS's will too soon.

I had this with mine 36+1, he's still sick in the night at 7 months old but it's got a lot better. I put him on his back but turn his head to the side. I think the advice is flat on the back completely, but with his head to the side the sick would come out rather than back down his throat so I figured it was lesser of two evils

And if it helps, we were in 8 days on postnatal ward until he reached a certain weight. Hopefully you'll be home soon but just wanted to say a longer stay is quite common. I remember it being quite frustrating though when I had friends home within 8 hours and we were 8 days!

DD2 was born at 36+6 and we did 2.5 days in hospital. she would latch, sort of, but we also needed to do syringe top ups to get her blood sugars up.

She was also mucousy for the first day or two but it cleared. No choking/blue episodes in that time, but we put her partly on her side to sleep (rolled towel behind her back to prop her in that position).

if you think he is still mucousy when you come home, you could get a monitor with a breathing sensor mat eg angelcare one.

if latch issues persist, worth getting seen by a lactation consultant, and specifically checked for tongue tie.

Congratulations

Blue baby incidents and reluctance to latch are warning signs for reflux so keep a beady eye on it. We had a motion mat for dd who had lots of blue baby incidents, I luffed that mat soo much, but then as she'd been in the nicu for 81 days I was well and truly institutionalised :)