Wen did your preemie start breastfeeding well?

coastalmaine · July 2012

My 29 weeker ( who is now 37 weeks) is still struggling with breastfeeding and prefers the bottle...when did your LO finally 'get it'?

vsalt31 · July 2012

My DS really only got the hang of it about 3wks ago. He was born tongue tied & couldn't BF until it was snipped (3wks ago )

becketts · July 2012

DD was born at 35 weeks, figured out the bottle and left the NICU at 37 weeks, and after lots of hard work she figured out BFing when she was 8 weeks old (6 weeks after leaving the NICU). I can't say enough good things about our LC and highly recommend getting connected with one!

haziedaze · July 2012

BF wasn't "easy" till he was 1-2 wks adj. He did BF more than bottle feed from the get go though. Urbanflowerpot has a great post on the preemie blog (linked at top of page) talking about how she dealt with nipple confusion issues with her little guy. It was a lot of work for them but she prevailed in the end. Lots of ppl have found her story helpful.

urbanflowerpot · July 2012

coastalmaine:
My 29 weeker ( who is now 37 weeks) is still struggling with breastfeeding and prefers the bottle...when did your LO finally 'get it'?

It might take some time and work after the NICU experience. DS was nipple confused (though it looked like he knew what he was doing - had all the nurses and LC's fooled, too!) and so it took four months for him to be EBF. The three weeks up until he got it were his most successful since I'd gone to get another LC.