Did you have to remind your babies to nurse?

[kellyds]

Our son, Joshua, is two weeks old today. He is our sixth child. I usually nurse our kids until they are two or three and haven't had any problems.

Joshua needs a lot of help to nurse. I have to move his tongue out of the way to get the nipple in, hold his chin up for him as he nurses, and keep tickling his cheek to get him to suck.

He also doesn't awaken to eat. I've been setting my alarm and waking him every three hours to nurse.

When we got home from the hospital, I knew he needed more milk than he was getting, so I was feeding him breast milk from a spoon. He lost a whole pound, which he is slowly gaining back, now that I've figured out how to help him suck.

I just wondered if this is typical, and if it might become easier for him to nurse as he gets older and stronger.

[justinsmom]

This is typical, it's because of the low muscle tone, but as he gets stronger it should improve. Have you tried giving him a supplemental bottle of your expressed milk, it's sometimes easier for them to suck from a bottle until they get a little stronger. In no means am I suggesting that you stop attempting breastfeeding just offer him a bottle to try and get him to increase his tone. I tried breastfeeding Justin but was unable to produce enough milk for him, but while I was trying the lactation nurse had me give him a bottle and once he started sucking to take it out and offer him the breast again, it worked but then unfortunately I had nothing left to offer him.

[Connie]

Welcome!!!

You may try nursing with a breastshield until he gets a little stronger and learns how to latch on a little better. But, using the breast shield with cut down on your milk supply because of lack of stimulation.

My son Collin was 9lbs at birth so he had a little he could play with. He was not back up to his birth weight until he was 8 weeks old but he did learn how to nurse and did a very good job of it until he was 16 months old.

It is really going to be up to you and your doctor but if he is gaining weight even if it is slowly I would still keep practicing the nursing. In my own experience I would stay away from the bottle until he is well established with his nursing technique as not to confuse him.

Good luck and
Keep up posted.
Connie

[MB]

I was so dumb I didn't know enough to worry about the breastfeeding! My son was on a demand schedule and he fed about every four hours. The reason I say this is your little guy might nurse better if he is truly hungry. We would wait until ours started fussing.

Our son's weight did fluctuate while he was nursing, but he did stay incredibly healthy during that time. He never had any bouts of bronchitis or pneumonia. And with this terrible flu season, I would do anything to keep breastmilk in your little guy.

MB

[meghans_mom]

Meghan was also on a 'demand feeding' schedule...she'd absolutely scream exactly every 4 hours to be fed...she also slept thru the night after a night or two after we got home and the pediatrician said this was fine to let her sleep. I think I fed her at 11 or midnight and then she'd wake around 6 am for her next feeding. But we also didn't have weight loss issues so we didnt have that as an extra concern.
I also had to help MM with lip closure by supporting her chin. I didn't nurse for more than a few months, but I do have many friends who bf their kids w/ DS for quite awhile...I think he'll learn and it will get easier for him as he grows stronger.
best of luck - laurie

[logansmom]

Welcome to UnoMas! My son, Logan, is almost 2 but he had a lot of problems nursing when he was a newborn. We had a lot of trouble keeping him awake. He really didn't care about eating (and he still doesn't). He wouldn't wake up and he wouldn't cry . . . the doctor said we couldn't depend on him to let us know when to feed him. We were put on a 3 hour schedule. We had to wake Logan up, use cold wet washclothes, massage his cheeks, and do everything we could think of to keep him awake long enough to eat. Due to his poor latch and lack of motivation, I pumped (for a year) and fed him using bottles. There were times when it took 45 minutes for Logan to drink 3-4 ounces. Thankfully, those days are over (he can empty a sippy cup with the best of them). He still doesn't ask to eat, but at least he can finish a meal in a "normal" amount of time . . . for a two year old!

It takes a lot of patience, but I know you're not alone. We wish you the best of luck with feeding. Please keep us posted.

Kim
Logan (2 years old in one week)

[PaigesMom]

I couldn't nurse Paige as she had no suck reflex and we really had to work even to get her to take anything from a bottle - and even then trying to find the 'right' nipple for her to grasp was challenging. Our OT was also a feeding specialist - she gave lots of great ideas on how to build her mouth muscles and get a better suck - alot of it was positioning her head, holding the bottle a certain way and also pushing up and in on both of her cheeks while she was feeding. It was sort of a juggling act - but eventually she got the hang of it.

Good luck.

[Valerie]

We actually bottle fed Nicholas, and he didn't wake up or cry to eat, either. We had a real problem getting him to gain weight, because he would tire so easily while eating because of his heart condition. It would take us an hour just to get 1 ounce in!! We did find that he ate better while he was sleeping, not sure why. He still only weighed around 8 pounds when he was 3 monthes old, then he had a surgery to put a band on his pulmonary artery. After that he flourished and we did get up to 19 lbs by his 1st birthday. I also just set my alarm and got him up to feed him, because he would have slept right through, too!

[MatureMomG]

I am MAD! My (long) post got erased before I got it up.
In essence- DO NURSE!
Hang in there. It is so important.
Get a good lactation consultant if you need to.
Yours in Christ,
Kathy

[SuziF]

There are alot of babies with DS who can't nurse though.
Even if they can suck, they may have the swallowing problems as my daughter did.
Looking back, even though I kept up with trying to nurse her & even expressing I see she was miserable untill we realised it was a swallowing issue. We wound up needing to thicken her liquid.(Meaning we had to switch to completely expressing then eventually to thinckened formula)
Don't feel guilty if what winds up being best for baby isn't what you expected.

Suzi

[Chris]

I was just thinking about all the things I tried to get Sarah to nurse and remembered trying this tiny rubber tube that was attached to a bag with expressed milk in it. The tube was slipped into the baby's mouth when she was trying to nurse. It just gave her more milk while she was nursing.

It never worked for us because Sarah was just too weak to nurse due to her heart defect. I was just trying to think of ways that your baby could get additional calories without giving him a bottle. My first child had nipple confusion and I would avoid giving any newborn a bottle until they are expert nursers.

You may want to go to the Medela website and check out all the products they have available.

Don't give up! Breastfeeding is wonderful!

Chris

[Kristen]

I was a wreck with Carter at the begining. He was healthy, but also premature and very weak due to complications with me, so it was a double whammy. He was on an NG tube when they sent him home but that disappeared in 3 days because we KNEW he could do it, but needed the chance. We (I) would set the alarm and wake up to pump and feed around the clock, but he had different ideas. NOTHING could keep him awake when he wanted to sleep and the stress was killing me - I kept worrying he would shrink. We would work his mouth, stroke his cheek, we were even told to slap his feet and put cold cloths on him NOTHING worked when he didn't want to eat The best thing that happened is we took a trip to see my mom's family when hewas about 4 1/2 weeks old. We didn't set an alarm, but he woke up crying to be fed - about every 4 hours, not 3. He ate and went right back down. You guy will get stronger, but honestly, I was know to revert to squeezing the bottle of pumped milk down his throat in his sleep. He would suck a little and I would put the pressure on to help him get it out, then when he dozed, I would keep the same pattern up and he would drink that way. I put him on VERY runny rice off a spoon at 5 weeks and he would gobble up his whole feeding that way. He moved right on to purees and was eating like a horse at three months. I kept him on breastmilk as long as I could (I dried up at 6 months), but my personal feeling was that he needed weight and nutrition to get strong and he wasn't getting there very quick with their methods, so I did it my way and he would gain sometimes 10 ounces in a week. Whatever it takes some days - most of us have been there with this one!

[goodgoats]

Hi there
I have a DS son who is almost 4 weeks old. He and his twin sister were born at 36 weeks so he had the problem of prematurity and DS working against his ability to suck properly. I spent the first 2 weeks practically living in the NICU doing what we called the "boob-a-thon"! I had a great staff of NICU nurses who were willing to help me and let me try to get him to suck on the breast. We poke him every 2 hours around the clock and offered it to him, undressed him, wiped him down with cold washcloths, pinched his heels, etc. . . It worked and he finally learned how to suck good enough to maintain his weight (not gain, just maintain)
When he was born, he was 5lbs. 12oz. When he was released from the NICU 2 weeks later, he was 5lbs. 8oz. Even though the doctors were concerned that he begin to gain weight, they also saw that we were very determined parents and let him come home with us. He has been home now for 2 weeks and is just now starting to gain weight. He doesn't always wake up to eat, he gets tired and doesn't suck as good as a non-DS baby (I have 10 other children that I have nursed so I can tell the difference). I too began to give him a bottle with my expressed milk in it. He sucked way easier on the bottle (even though my preference was to keep him on the breast). Yet, I also realized that if there was a way to get him to gain weight (i.e. the bottle) then I would give him that instead of the breast.
TEXT last week, came the answer! I met up with a lactation consultant who is using me as a case study. She gave me a pump so I could pump at least 3 times a day after the twins nursed. She also gave me a little thing called an SNS (supplemental nursing system). With this device, I am able to get about 20-30cc extra of my milk into him WHILE he nurses at my breast. It is a bottle with a tube attached to it. The tube hooks to my breast and so he gets the breast and the tube milk at the same time. I can take pictures of it and send them to you if you would like to see what it looks like. I would highly encourage you to get your hands on one and keep your little guy on the breast. I believe the benefits of sucking on the breast (if you have a DS infant who can suck on the breast) are very great and will help the low muscle tone in the facial and neck area to develop more quickly.
Of course, if this doesn't work and the bottle turns out to be the only way to fatten up your little guy then, I would encourage you to go that route. A healthy DS infant is what we all want and giving a bottle is not the end of the world if that is the way you have to acheive having a healthy DS infant. I have been researching this out and I believe that the lower growth weights that many testify to are simply because these little DS blessings tire out and don't get enough milk (or formula) and they hardly ever complain about it (they just go back to sleep!).
If anyone would like a picture of the one I have please email me at [e-mail] . You could also contact your local WIC office or LaLeche League for info about getting one. The one I have has a single tube and they gave it to me for free. There is a double tube one at www.babiesadvantage.com/product_info.php/cPath/35_41/products_id/53/?sc=ov for about $50.
Hope this helps!
Kim