Kellymom down: need help for a new preemie mom ASAP

bumpuser2505903

Kellymom is down and I'm looking for advice for my friend. She just delivered a 36weeker due to pre-e. The baby is 4 lbs 8 oz. They're telling her the baby needs formula because she's so small. This doesn't seem right to me. Thoughts?

I'm trying to offer advice but it's hard when what I'm saying goes against the pedi in the hospital. Any tips, advice, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

jlsimon56

I don't see what formula would do.  Get that mom to nurse her baby!  Is the baby in the NICU?  Mom can pump if she wants....but that skin to skin is important, especially for a preemie.

Jessiree

Are you friends with Kellymom on FB?

They posted an article just a few days ago about the benefits of BM for preemies. Tell her to ask the pedi if he has any research based evidence that formula is empirically better for preemies. Remind her she's the mom and it's her call, regardless of what he says. GL! That's a tough spot for her.

Ashley&Scott

Did she ask if she can pump & feed? Has she asked to speak with a LC?

Even if they do formula now she should still pump & switch LO to BM/BFing as soon as possible. 

Ashley&Scott

Jessiree:

Are you friends with Kellymom on FB?

They posted an article just a few days ago about the benefits of BM for preemies. Tell her to ask the pedi if he has any research based evidence that formula is empirically better for preemies. Remind her she's the mom and it's her call, regardless of what he says. GL! That's a tough spot for her.

Here's a link to that article:

https://scienceofmom.com/2012/04/20/the-apparent-breastfeeding-paradox-what-is-optimal-nutrition-for-a-premature-baby/ 

becketts

They may just mean that baby needs some formula while waiting for mom's milk to come in. This was the case for both of my girls (both preemies). Preemies are typically not allowed to lose much of their birth weight because they don't have the cushion that a full term baby had. Also, preemie sometimes need to have some formula added to expressed milk to increase the calorie content. 

By all means, your friend should start pumping ASAP and the NICU should give her expressed milk to baby until baby is able to attemp breast feeding. GL to her! 

bumpuser2505903

Thanks everyone for your awesome, quick replies. The baby is not in the NICU, which is great. They are allowing mom to pump, but they are supplementing with formula (probably because they don't want her to lose much weight like becketts said).

I will check out the article from KM, thank you. Also, they have a LC seeing her,  but I just want the bebe to have more opportunity to BF directly so mommas boobs knows it's time to start producing. I guess the pump will help with that, I just feel like the "real thing" is better.

This hospital is pretty pro-BF but it's amazing what pedi's will say....I mean seriously, the baby NEEDS formula!?!?...hogwash!!!!

missjulierenee

katken232:

Thanks everyone for your awesome, quick replies. The baby is not in the NICU, which is great. They are allowing mom to pump, but they are supplementing with formula (probably because they don't want her to lose much weight like becketts said).

I will check out the article from KM, thank you. Also, they have a LC seeing her,  but I just want the bebe to have more opportunity to BF directly so mommas boobs knows it's time to start producing. I guess the pump will help with that, I just feel like the "real thing" is better.

This hospital is pretty pro-BF but it's amazing what pedi's will say....I mean seriously, the baby NEEDS formula!?!?...hogwash!!!!

This was us and our baby was in NICU. My milk had not come in, but they were giving her colostrum, along with formula. They have a certain amount of ounces she needed so they could get her off the IV, if I could not make that much we had to supplement. For the most part she received BF (85 to 90%) of the time. I really hating giving her formula, but at the time we did whatever we could to make her well.

Kmalissa08

My Lo was just over 3 weeks premie too. The drs wanted to give her formula because she was too weak to latch on and it was hard to keep her awake. I let them at first but then I started pumping and bottle feeding her breastmilk instead. That worked wonders and she really started gaining weight after that.

Divashrink1982

I just had a 36 weeker, and this happened to us. In our case, DS had trouble sucking and wasn't getting enough nourishment. I pumped and fed him colostrum through a syringe (finger feeding). We even needed help from the nurse to help him to be awake long enough to take the syringe at first! Then, we did different exercises to try to get him to learn how to suck.

Even with all of that, we still had to give him some formula. We met with a lactation consultant and she gave us a plan. We had to give him a certain amount of either expressed milk or formula (depending on how much I had) in the finger syringe as well as having him on the breast for each feeding. We didn't need to use too much formula because I had a good supply pretty quickly - so we didn't even use all of the formula that the hospital gave us. He needed the extra stuff, though - because he was jaundiced and just learning how to suck.

Now, we are feeding on the breast at each feeding and giving him supplemental pumped milk whenever he wants it, which hasn't been very often. We are going to see his weight this week at the doctor to see if we can start feeding on demand (per the lactation consultant) rather than having to wake him every 3 hours.

So - not that I'm an authority on the subject (I'm a FTM and my little guy is only a week old!) - but I did have a similar experience, and this is what worked out for us. hth.