Learning to drink from a bottle

DawnJM25

DS reached what would have been 34 weeks on Monday.  He is fed 1 bottle of about .75 oz. once every nurses' shift (12 hours).  On Monday he drank the whole thing, but ever since he has had trouble staying awake during the bottle feed and either drank nothing or just a few ccs.  I totally understand that this is a skill that needs time and DH and I need to be patient.  Just wondering what others' experiences were.  We haven't been able to coordinate our schedule yet with the speech therapist.  Was the speech therapist helpful to you?  How long did it take your LO to consistently drink from a bottle?  Thanks!

 

rslhmg

The speech therapist did about a month with DD, we only needed 1 visit with them to catch on to what to do because my mother stayed with me majority of the time in the nicu and had been through the speech therapy and feeding tricks when my nephew was in the nicu. DD seemed to have the hang of things pretty quickly, but they wanted to keep an eye on her the last week because of her GERD, and she took up until 2 wks before we came home to take all of her feedings by bottle. That last couple weeks her stamina seemed to finally kick in, but that was the real issue with feedings for us, she would just get too worn out halfway and they had to tube the rest. Gl with your Lo, it will click, its just frustrating waiting.

yinyang124

My boys were born at 34 weeks exactly, and it took them 3 and 4 weeks to take all their feeds orally. It is incredibly frustrating to wait, and there will be good and bad days. Good days make you so hopeful that the end is near, and bad days are like being sent back to start. It really does just click overnight. Good luck to your LO. Stay strong, mama.

MinaE01

Feeding was by far the most frustrating part of our NICU stay! I feel your pain! DS was born at 32w3d. We had ups and downs with the bottle feeding for a couple of weeks before he finally got the hang of it. He'd take almost the whole bottle one day, and the next, barely 15mls. He needed to get bigger and stronger so his endurance for feeding would increase. It may take another week or two for that to happen. The speech therapist was very helpful in teaching us techniques to help with his feeding. I would definitely recommend working with him or her. DS got the hang of feeding taking most of his bottles around 35 and a half weeks and was home a couple days later at 35w6d. It really does happen overnight. Just be prepared for setbacks along the way. They will happen and it's ok. Good luck! I hope you he get's the hang of it soon!