26ish-weekers, feeding

lemen99

Our son was born at 26w2d.  He's stuck at around 30% on his nipple feedings.  (He doesn't seem to prefer bottle vs. BF)  His due date is Monday.

It concerns me that he's been at 30% for weeks - not showing any signs of improvement.  A lot of the time he won't even wake up to eat.  Blood test shows no anemia or anything.  The times he does eat, he'll often be pooped after 15mL or so. (he needs 60 mL)  Occasionally he'll take his whole bottle - about once a day.  They won't let him try eating on demand because he's not taking much by mouth.

They are doing a swallow study Monday, and getting speech therapy involved. He doesn't appear to have reflux issues though (or if he does he's good at hiding it) and his suck/swallow mechanics seem good when he is willing to eat. He doesn't DSAT or BRADY or choke.  He's not on oxygen and they aren't even monitoring his blood oxygen level anymore.

 Maybe he's just developmentally slow.  He's been through a lot (ventilated etc) and had a grade 1 and grade 4 IVH, as well as another spot in the cerebellum.

Beyond that, it sounds like there's nothing can do, and they'd "do what they can to get him home" which I'm assuming involves a feeding tube. :-(

Did anyone have a similar experience?     I'm trying to be positive because I know how lucky we are to have gotten this far, but I'm so tired.  We've been at the hospital every day for over 108 days now :-(

Thanks!

dmblack

My DD was a 26w3d baby.  All I can say is once she got the hang of the bottle it was less than a week that she came home.  I'm sorry I have no advice...all I can say is once the light bulb came on she came home soon after.  Good luck.  I know its frustrating....but he will come home.

lemen99

I keep hoping that will happen! I thought it happened last Sunday, when suddenly he took 70% of his feeds, but since is back down to 20-30%.   He's not made any upward progress (except for that day).  I'll pray for a light bulb to go off soon!!

TriciaJoy

Ditto the PP. We didn't have a gradual increase. It was like a lightbulb went off and boom.. he was eating.

We do now have a feeding tube (G tube) but that's from issues that developed later..

Good luck, babe. Eating troubles are soooooooo frustrating.

Pinaybride2005

I know every baby is different.  DD was slowly introduced to bottle feedings. First, she did one bottle each nurse shift and then it went to every other.  It continued until it was all feedings. 

Good luck! 

 

MandR

DS was 24w4d and we did a sort of gradual increase.  He took as much as he could by bottle and then G tube the rest.  It went on like that for what seemed like forever.  One day he just decided to take a whole feed by bottle and it just slowly improved from there.  When it seemed like we were never going to go home, he got it!!  Good luck & hang in there!