preemies and bfing, formula, pumping etc.

afhm

any moms of preemies have any advice on how much bfing vs. pumping vs. formula supplementation to do?  i wasn't planning on bfing until i had a preemie.  i've been pumping and he also had a successful latch yesterday.  i'm only off work ten weeks though so i'm really struggling to figure out how long i'm going to bf/pump.  any advice, schedules, etc. would be appreciated.

CLAYLIOVER

I pumped for 5 months and the girls were on frozen breastmilk for 2 months after that. I was try to pump/BF for as long as it is possible for you!

 

kck329

The longer you can pump/BF the better but do what works for you. There are lots of preemie moms on this board who use formula and have thriving little ones.

I pumped exclusively for almost 3 months while DD was in the NICU. The nutritionist knew I hoped to take her home on plain breastmilk so during her last two weeks we switched to non-fortified breastmilk to make sure DD could gain weight. I breastfed for every feed I could be there for and the nurses/DH bottle fed when I went home to sleep (3 feeds?). Now that she is at home, she is on plain breastmilk and gets about 2 bottles a day when my DH feeds her. All the pumping I did in the beginning means I have an awesome freezer stash and I pump every time DD gets a bottle now so she should be on breastmilk for a long time. 

At the last nutritionist evaluation they did mention that if DD doesn't gain a little faster we may look at supplementing or fortifying her bottles but I'm hoping she won't need that. 

Good luck!

katie4253

IMO, the longer you can pump/bf the better.  Preemies have compromised immune systems.  Breast milk has antibodies to protect them from illness.  I do supplement with formula because they've told me many times he needs the extra calories, calcium, and phosphorus that the formula gives.  He gets two 70ml bottles of formula a day and 6 70ml bottles of breast milk.

I'm kind of ready to call BS about the "extra calories" though.  I calculated that he is getting 390 calories a day with the formula and he'd get 380 on breast milk only.  Ten extra calories a day doens't really seem like that big of a deal to me...

We have several months of free neosure that the hospital gave us.  Once he is done with that, I am going to really press the doctors to prove to me that he still needs to be on the formula. 

urbanflowerpot

My advice: just go with it Whatever you can do is great - and while he's superyoung you'll be out-pumping what he needs so you can stock-pile it. Some women stop because pumping is stressful (it is - be prepared) which is understandable. NICU babies thrive on F, too!

Katie, it's BS IMHO. We ditched it a long time ago & DS is turning just as fatty as he would have with it, no doubt!