Feeding problems

[Jonesylass]

Hi, not sure I qualify to be on this board as my LO was born at 36 weeks by EMCS due to being small - he came out at 4lb 12 so not a bad size at all.
However, since birth 10 days ago he’s been in SCBU because he has problems feeding.
He’s too sleepy to feed sometimes and gets NG tube fed by the staff. Currently he is being fed 45ml every 3 hours - which compared to another tiny baby next to him seems a minute amount?
Does anyone have any tips or positive stories of babies suddenly getting to grips with bottle feeding ?! Or to keep him awake longer whilst feeding?

He’s perfectly healthy and great apart from the feeding issue and isn’t allowed home until he can sustain bottle feeding for 3 days on the bounce. Today feels like he will be in here forever as we’re not making any progress - unsure what else we can try, the staff don’t seem to be hearing me when I voice my concerns

I should also point out that when I spend the whole day in SCBU with him and do his feeds he is waking up for them and screaming - and often takes the whole bottle for me. The staff tend to give up with him after 5 minutes and tube him (which is frustrating)

Congratulations on your baby! My baby was born a bit earlier than yours but the main thing the nurses used to say is that often babies will just suddenly “get it” when it comes to feeding and it can seem like it’ll never happen then suddenly changes overnight.
Are you doing things like stroking his cheek or tickling his toes when he starts getting sleepy when feeding?
Also do they have any rooms where you can stay on the unit so that you can see if he can sustain the feeding from you round the clock? When my DD started feeding (breastfed for us) 3-4 times in a row without needing a tube feed I then stayed in their ‘bedding in’ room to see if she could sustain it for two days before coming home. In hospital my DD was having 35ml at 4Ib so that amount for your ds sounds about right.

I am literally in the same boat as you. Baby fed through the tube for 4 days, then tube+bottle, and we had to make sure he had at least 30 ml every 3 hours on the bottle for a day to go home. It was so incredibly hard, as even the midwives on the ward were like- wow, the baby is not feeding well on the bottle. He was just so used to the tube, and would not take the bottle, we started with 2 (!!!) ml from the bottle and tube top ups.

2 weeks down the line, we feed him around 50 ml every three hours, sometimes less, but sometimes around 60/70, so the daily minimum is always reached. We have good and bad feeds, but overall, we did buy a few bottles to see which ones he would prefer. Our problem was that being small and weakish, he found it hard to suck the bottle, so we experimented with different teats to see which ones were easy for him. The hospital ones were quite awful for him, so once home we managed to get him to eat a lot more.

Hi there,

Congrats of your LO! I know it is so hard when you are in this situation as all you want is for the feeding to be established and so you can get home. But is so is true it just clicks one day then there is no stopping them!

I know it's frustrating but the nurses literally don't have time to sit and keep trying with the bottle. Same thing happened with us, so we tried to be there (husband and I taking it in turns) to be there for an many feedings as possible. Hi there,
Our son was born at 31+2 and spent 4.5 weeks in NICU.

I remember it taking us literally and hour to get 30mls down him. He would stop halfway through a feed and change his nappy to wake him up and strip him down to his vest so he didn't get too cosy and comfy. Also the position you use to feed him. We would hold him out in front of us, like laying in your forearm and supporting his neck with our hand. When you get home we also found that the NUK bottles worked best when he was small and he couldn't cope with the bigger size teats.

It's so hard at this stage but know it will get better. As long as they are putting on weight!

Good luck
Talesandfailsofmummylife.com

4 weeks after our lil one being born, we have not that many problems feeding. He takes min 50 ml (sometimes up to a 100 when he is hungry) every 2-3 hours, and now wakes up and cries for food, so we no longer have to set alarm clocks and make sure he eats.
It does get better, I did not believe it would happen looking at when it took him an hour to drink 30 ml and he was asleep throughout most of the feed and nothing worked.