Solid food for pre term baby with weak intestines & lungs

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waiwaiber

Registered User
Would you suggest rice cereal or barley cereal for pre term babies with weak intestines & lungs?

My baby was born 2 months earlier than expected due date, so I decided to give solid food only when he reaches 8 months. He also has weak lungs & intestines, and so far I only breastfeed him.

Is rice cereal mixed with breastmilk the easiest solid food for him to digest?

What do u suggest?
 
hi
my triplets were quite premature, and by the time they were eight months adjusted, we were feeding them rice cereal with milk.

i would suggest getting your pediatrician's go ahead before starting. especially if your little one has intestinal difficulties.

congratulations for the exclusive breastfeeding, when you have a preemie in hospital that is extremely challenging. you should be very proud of yourself.
 
I agree with dimsum mum, good for you that you have been breast feeding!! both my babies were premature (33wks & 30wks) and we fed rice cereal with breastmilk for 1 and rice cereal with formula for the other. the one born at 30wks had reflux and still spit up quite a bit but has been doing well with solids. I started him at 6mths. Talk with your dr. and see what he/she recommends. Our babies did much better after they were on solids.
 
I would also suggest talking to your doctor because waiting until 8 months may be too long if they do not have good iron stores. Babies build up their iron stores the last weeks of pregnancy and that carries them over for about 6 months until they are starting solid foods and taking in iron via iron fortified rice cereal or meats, etc. they do get iron in breast milk as well but at some point it is not enough and need from a food source as well., but at 2 months premature they would not have recieved all the iron stores had they been full term and are more likely than a full term baby to be anemic. I would check with your doctor about waiting because of the iron issue.
 
Thx dimsummum, milkmonster & babymommy2, for yr replies & encouragement on breastfeeding.

My 1st child (who I breastfed for 11 mths) was a full term baby & has no problems with health. So, on solid food, I was simply feeding her with the usual stuff.

My 2nd one has some congenital problems (see my other thread in "Baby's Health" ( http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread127421.html ), & I am a bit concerned if he can't 'boo' 'boo' nicely when I introduce solid to him.

At the moment, I planned to give 'best earth' rice cereal and mix with breastmilk when his adjusted age is 6 mths. What brand of rice cereal would u suggest to pre-term babies?

I also heard about 'human milk fortifier' which can be added to breastmilk. Can this be given instead of giving solid food?

As to iron nutrients (thx babymommy2 for reminding everyone), my baby is having liquid iron supplements prescribed by doctor, so i guess should be less of a problem.

Do leave yr comments.
 
Hi waiwaiber

I also have a premature baby who is now 12 mths old corrected. He also had problems with intestine and had two operations on his intestine during his earlier months. As per dr's suggestion we started solid with my boy at 6 mths old corrected. I started with healthy times brown rice cereal (mixed with breastmilk) and later moved onto Healthy Times oatmeal. Though he's not a good eater he did digest well and didn't have any problem with his intestine.

Yes there are human milk fortifier but it's usually for the newborns. I need to add fortifier into my breastmilk during his first 6 mths bcuz of his serious underweight problem (he fell way below 1st percentile back then). This fortifier is not available in the market and can only be obtained through hospital or through selected paediatricians. For my case I got it through QM dietician free of charge.
 
Human milk fortifier is not meant to be replacement for food. We started our baby on organic brown rice cereal from healthy times. Just because you introduce solids, doesn't mean your baby has to be on a fully solid meal, you can start of slowly, we did 1 solid meal a day until we felt he was ready for 2, then 3. Since you are also breast feeding, there shouldn't be any issue with pooping if you start off slowly. I know how worrying it is to be the mom of a premature baby...especially when they are not healthy. We really struggled with our son and has only started to really show signs of improvement at 7-8mths. my 2nd son was on formula starting at 4mths.
 
thx, jormankiu & milkmonster.

Seems that you both suggest Healthy Times organic brown rice cereal as against usual rice cereal which most people say it's easier to digest. I would compare the 2, though wish to have more suggestions.

Re human milk fortifier, my baby was also underweight and so QM gave fortifier. But after about 2 or 3 months, my baby was not blurpping well, so I decided to breastfeed him directly instead of bottle-feeding him with my breastmilk (so as to mix with the fortifer). But when his blurpping improved, the dietation refused to give fortifier anymore. He is still under 'line 5' of the growth chart and actually I wanted so much to let him have fortifier again, only to find that it is not selling anywhere in HK.

In fact, his recent weight dropped again (only gaining 1 lb in 4 weeks) but the doctor said that we can still wait and see. Jormankiu, you mentioned that some selected paedi would have fortifier selling too. Can you suggest?
 
hi waiwaiber

You can approached dr barbara lam who worked as the head of QM NICU for 10+ years. She may be able to help you with getting fortifiers (sometimes free of charge if she gets samples, sometimes not). You can also see if it's appropriate for your baby to take Polycal which is a high energy power for underweight babies.

Feeding a premature baby is usually even harder than feeding normal term babies as they were intubed for quite some while and this may irritate their throat and senses. But every baby is different. For my baby (who is now 14 mths old actual), it's been a battle everyday to feed him, and we have to come up with different tactics all the time. Hope your baby loves eating!
 
Agree with jormankiu, see dr. barbara lam. she specializes in premature babies and will help you with your baby. We didn't see her after we left the hospital (we saw her there as a consultant) but know of many other parents who continues with her and are very happy with her.
 
thanks so much jormankiu & milkmonster,

i ve found dr. lam's email from the internet and after an exchange of email, i ve finally made an appointment with dr. lam and will be seeing her after 2 weeks. i will also be seeing qm dietitian tomorrow. will update u then,

thx.
 
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