Worried about nipple confusion

M

mintycat

Registered User
My second daughter was born 3 weeks early last Sunday. She has jaundice and is having phototherapy but by the time I was discharged yesterday, her level still hasn't change much (it was 14 this morning). I did some research on the internet and know this is not a dangerous level but we wanted to keep her there for another day just in case because my first DD had to be re-admitted as an outpatient for phototherapy after just 2 days home.

So I am pumping vigorously at home and I get about 2-4 oz each time. I breastfed at the hospital and only fed her by syringe or cup when I gave her EBM. But since I am home now and we want her to spend more time under the lights, I was convinced by the staff to let them feed her EBM from a bottle (according to them, bottle takes less them than cup or syringe.

With my first, because she never had a good latch and she was fed from a bottle as an outpatient for 3 days, I ended up pumping exclusively for 9 months. I hope not to repeat this again and I really want to breastfeed.

So my question is if she only has bottles for 1-2 days at the hospital, will we have this problem? What can I do to minimize this? When she comes home, I plan to feed on demand. She has a great latch by the way.
 
Also, the nurses are feeding her 80 ml (about 2.7 oz) per feeding, every 3-4 hours. I don't think I can pump that much or my body is producing that much yet. If I feed on demand when she comes home, how can my supply meet her demand?
 
It is difficult when the hospital insists that bottles are used. The only thing that you can do is hope for the best and get help if your baby doesn?t latch and nurse well when you go to full breastfeeding again.

Make sure your latch is as good as possible. The things to look for in a good latch are:
  • The baby?s body is right up against your body ? you can?t see her belly button because it is against your body.
  • You are holding the baby at the top of the back ? giving her head free movement.
  • The baby?s head is tilted backwards ? so her chin is deep into your breast and her nose is free.
  • You can usually see the areloa showing at the top lip but not at the bottom one.
  • Most importantly you can see lots of deep jaw movement as she feeds.
  • And lastly you have no pain.

A week old baby will be feeding between 8 and 14 times in 24 hours. So if you are not directly feeding you need to be pumping this many times. Make sure that the direct feeding and the pumping make at least 8 times a day.

Don?t worry about how much milk they are giving in the hospital ? they usually give too much. Once your baby is home keep breastfeeding whenever she will do so and you will have enough milk

Also read my post about normal new-born feeding patterns at
http://www.geobaby.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120256&page=2
(it is post #15)

If you have more questions consider telephoning one of the LLL leaders in Hong Kong. There details are on www.lllhk.org

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
my first was 50-50 bottle/breast... no problem with nipple confusion

my second had 2 feeds of formula in hospital via bottle, has been exclusively bf since coming home 4 months ago...but when i say exclusively, i mean that she has only had breast milk...she's been fed from a bottle from the beginning as well as from the breast (of course, i prefer the latter, but as i work, i can't always be around)....no nipple confusion either....maybe i'm jsut lucky!
 
which hospital is it? I've just had my twin girls at the adventist, and on one occasion they topped one of them up with my expressed milk. I asked my husband to go and watch how they did it with a syringe (incase we wanted to do so at home in the first few weeks) and he caught the midwife about to give a bottle. She got the fright of her life when my husband started banging on the glass & told her to stop! We'd told them several times to use syringe or cup, but I guess the lesson learnt was to reinforce at each time 'no bottle'.

Yes, it does take them longer with syringe or bottle, but I was told by the unit manager that it was up to me how they were fed....so I would say if you really want 'no bottle', then insist and make a fuss if necessary.

have you seen the Medela soft spout feeder? It's not a bottle with a teat, but is like a cup-thing with a spout. perhaps you could invest in one of those to use....they are pretty cheap. We got ours from Meridien:
http://www.meridianhk.com.hk/breastfeeding_main.html

K
 
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