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When did LO figure out suck-swallow-breathe?

schenkertobeschenkertobe
in Preemies
I feel like we are just sitting in limbo waiting for LO to figure out the SSB so he can start breast/bottle feeding. I cannot wait to see the end of his gavage feeds. He is 34w1d today. When did you LO start to figure this out? Also how often did speech see your LO when he/she was learning this? So far speech has only been by to see him once and I am getting impatient for them to see him more often.
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Re: When did LO figure out suck-swallow-breathe?

  • Lilystar82Lilystar82 member
    SSB was one of those things with both of my kids that they just kinda woke up and started doing. There wasnt a progression - it just happened one day. With DS it was around 35weeks gestational age (2w 1d old) DD was the same, a few days behind him. Speech only came to see them once because they were still in the normal gestational age where it wasnt an issue. Speech will start coming more when they are 38-40 weeks and still haven't gotten SSB down.
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  • witt0198witt0198
    He started at around 34 weeks, but eating was a really hard thing, hard as in he actually had to work, and it tuckered him out. In hind sight, we pushed him too hard and he came home too early. I'd say he got good at it around term gestation.
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  • kamcfarlanekamcfarlane member

    i'd say he fully got it at about 36w, but it's my understanding that he took longer than most. it was a long wait, but all of a sudden he just started eating. hang in there - it WILL happen.

     and we never saw speech.

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  • schenkertobeschenkertobe
    Thank you! I keep reminding myself that I have to patient, that LO will figure it out when he is ready. Im just anxious to get him home.
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  • seattlestefseattlestef member
    My girls were born at 34w5d and came home at 36w1d so they figured it out just at 36w.
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  • OscarQOscarQ member
    It took my LO a long time - he was around 37 weeks gestation - but he'd be on a respirator until two weeks before and had only been off CPAP for about a week.  He went Ad Lib yesterday - 39w, 4d.  We haven't seen speech yet.
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  • Kate621Kate621 member
    Jack started bottle feedings around 36-37 weeks but he was almost 40 weeks before he didn't need any tube feedings.
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  • KtbussKtbuss
    They started trying to bottle feed cole around 35 weeks but he just couldn't get the hang of it it took us till he was 42 weeks to get off the gavage feeds.  Because Cole had such a tough time speech came at least once a day to try and get him to eat and figure out what his issues were.  We ended up have to use Dr Browns bottles and thicken his feeds to get him to eat well enough to come home.  Hang in there!
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  • lemen99lemen99 member
    We started at 34 or so weeks and it was slow going for a while.  He was very sporadic in his success for a while, but at 43 weeks GA we discovered that was primarily due to severe reflux.  It takes some time!  We didn't see speech much at all until his due date and trying to figure out what was wrong.  Hang in there, being patient now is really hard!
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  • jjilly7jjilly7
    Speech never saw LO. He started the bottle around 34 weeks, but didn't get 'it' until 37, and went home at 38. It is stressful, and frustrating being patient, but was told, boys take longer. 
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  • ssg73ssg73
    Our nicu did not start bottle feeding until 35 weeks.  She had a few non nutrative breast feeding sessions around 34 weeks.  It took E a while to get it down I would say that she didn't sotp getting a gavage feeding until about 39 weeks.  We were in no rush since she was having spells until after 40 weeks so feeding was not what kept us in the nicu.  I think that took the pressure off the eating thing and actually made the whole process much easier.
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  • krwys10krwys10

    it took noth of my babies about 2 weeks from starting bottles to getting 100% of their feedings down for an entire day.  They started out trying right b4 they turned 34 w.

    Speech came in to see my babes about every 3-4 days, at least once a week.  My babies knew how to ssb practically from the beginning, but they were just not willing to wake up every 3 hours to eat all of the time, so the gavauging continued.

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  • firsttogofirsttogo

    I would say about 36ish weeks. Speech came by 3-4 times in about 3 weeks, but I was awfully demanding about it. We had 3 ad-lib setbacks before DH and I camped out at the NICU around the clock all weekend. The overnight nurses "couldn't get her to take a feed" like no more than 15 MLs at night when we were getting 60 during the day.....

    Hang in there, they will get it! Gwen also did require a lot of chin support when she did start eating from a bottle. We would hold her on her side, and have her head in our hand, and one finger under her bottom lip to kind of remind her where her body was in space.

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