Join now

Already a member? Sign in

Welcome to Inspire!

What - Inspire is a place where you can connect with people who share your health concerns and find information and advice in groups sponsored by organizations you know and trust.

Why - As a member you can use Inspire to let friends and family know how you're doing, contact others who share your health concerns, receive personalized updates and information about participating in surveys and clinical trials, and more.

How - Joining Inspire is completely free and usually takes less than a minute. Join now!

corner corner corner

How to improve nursing?

Babymatt
0 Recommendations

Hi,
I'm new to this site and I needed advice about nursing. Our LO was born at 33 6/7 and spent 2 1/2 wks in the SCN for bili, and learning to feed. He's now 6 weeks, 0 adj. He barely nursed and needed bottles of BM to go home. Now I weigh him before each feed to see how much he nurses. He needs to eat every 2 hours (70 mL) but usually only can take 30 mL nursing. It is so hard to be back at work and nurse then supplement w/ bottle then pump all night... I take mothers milk special blend and reglan to be sure there is plenty of milk. I could use any suggestions to increase the amount he can nurse or idea when he may get better.

Explore topics in this discussion:

Reglan

6 replies

violetsmom

Violet was born at 25 weeks and is now 2 months adjusted. She was given the bottle as well and only started to nurse at 37 weeks gestation. I let her practice for a few weeks and she did not start getting the idea until around her due date. I would nurse her and then give her the rest in a bottle. Each passing week she has become stronger and able to take more from the breast and less from the bottle. It has take alot of time and patients to wait for her to figure this out. I feel blessed that she is able to nurse at all, as I know this is not always the case. It is hard to balance BF/pumping and the bottle....but you can do it. Don't give up and soon you will be exclusively breastfeeding. This is my wish as well

Babymatt

Thanks for the advice...he's getting better every week!

rainysmom

It took a while for my daughter to get stronger and after a few weeks of being home, our nursing skills were much improved.

It can just take a bit of time, and it sounds like things are getting better........hang in there!

MBA

To be honest, I was VERY frustrated with the nursing & pumping & cleaning all the stuff. I nursed my 2 older kids & was very eager to move to the freedom of exclusively nursing when my preemie (32 weeks) got home. I decided to take a day & just nurse on demand (I still pumped to keep myself comfortable & I had to give a tiny bit of milk via bottle for meds). I had plenty of frozen milk (from all the pumping while he was in the NICU) & I knew his latch was just fine. I felt he was getting lazy - waiting for that back-up bottle...

From that day, he nursed exclusively & continued to nurse until he weaned himself at 15 months. The nursing got us through a couple of hospital stays when he was a year old - he was refusing solids, bottles, everything, but would nurse - it kept him hydrated.

It was hard (mentally) to break from the constant measuring his intake, but it was so freeing to toss it all to the wind - &, until he got sick at 1 year, he thrived nursing - gained weight better than when he was on EBM via bottle... I know the "nurse-in" idea isn't for everyone (for various reasons - sometimes depending on the medical situation of the baby), but it really worked for us.

Babymatt

Thanks for all the great advice, I'm taking the scale back and we will just spend the weekend breastfeeding. The bottle is so easy for him maybe he just needs to nurse. He loves nursing anyway just more comfort nursing than actual work. : )

MBA

How did it go?

Add to the discussion

Don't have an Inspire account? Join now!

Forgot password?

Group leaders

You