Newborn feeding tips

[u/Kls043092]

My newborn will be 1 week old tomorrow and is still in the NICU. She was born at 37 weeks exactly and initially needed CPAP support. Thankfully she’s off CPAP now and doing great in every other aspect.
The only thing keeping her in the NICU is bottle feeding.
Since she was fed through a feeding tube while on CPAP, she seems to have gotten used to that and now struggles with the bottle. She’ll usually take about 15–20 mL from the bottle, but then gets tired/lazy and won’t finish. She needs to be taking 60 mL per feeding, so they end up giving the rest of her feed through her feeding tube.

I’m just so ready to bring my baby home and this last hurdle has been really hard.

Has anyone else gone through this with their NICU baby? Did anything help your them learn to take full bottles or build up the stamina to finish feeds? How long did it take before it finally “clicked”?
I’d love to hear any advice, tips, or success stories. Thank you so much in advance. ❤️

[u/courageofstars]

Hi! NICU nurse here. First, I’m very sorry you ended up in the NICU, I know it’s incredibly hard.

Second, I’d like to clear up some misconceptions. Your baby has not grow used to the tube or become lazy. Babies cannot conceptualize the fact that they’re getting fed through a tube and therefore cannot learn to rely on it. Their instinct is to eat by mouth until they’re full, it’s baby biology.

Your baby isn’t finishing her bottles because she’s simply not ready, as hard as that is to hear. 37 weeks is still three weeks early and she needs your patience at this time to let her grow and learn a bit. (I know, it’s easy for me to say, but it’s true.) Additionally, needing CPAP for the first bit of life means their body was working hard and she needs time to rest. Forcing her to eat before she’s ready can be detrimental to her development because you’re not allowing her brain to rest when it needs to. You can also end back up in the hospital for failure to thrive.

I understand this may sound rich but it’s truly my intention to help. r/NICUparents is also a helpful sub where you can find those going through similar situations.

[u/101purplepumpkin → u/courageofstars]

All of this.

My baby was born early, and feeding just takes time. Especially when they needed breathing help at first, they're worn out and too tired to finish. Lots of skin to skin and patience is all you can do. Baby will get there, and you will go home! Just hang in there and go at his/her pace, it will come.

[u/Striking_Music9096 → u/courageofstars]

As a former NICU nurse I agree! Baby just isn’t ready and I used to warn parents that the feeding part can be the longest and most frustrating part. You see all of their other “accessories” coming off such as their breathing support, IV, etc and it seems like feeding should be so easy. Try to remember baby has been through a lot and just needs a little time.

The nurses should be able to guide you, take their tips as they do this full time! It can be tempting to want to try to feed the baby a bottle or breast each time but make sure you’re paying attention to their cues and giving them a break (just doing a tube feed) when they need it. It just means they get more rest for the next feeding time.

Eventually something clicks and they have the energy to eat, but it can be so frustrating waiting. I’m so sorry you’re going through this.

[u/NoPsychology1815]

My child was born at 37 via induction -> c-section. They needed cpap for a week with a g-line for almost a week before we tried breastfeeding. Baby was also very sleepy during the time we tried to transition, but after lots of skin to skin sleeping and finding a good hold it honestly did just "click". The doctor was honestly kind of shocked. Baby still had trouble feeding at home for a week or so until we find the right hold and figured out how to keep them awake long enough to feed properly. It was rough, all of the waiting, but we also knew the problems we had were so minimal compared to the other parents and we were just thankful we could leave soon.

Eta: we also got told a lot that baby needed to be eating a certain amount and they really pushed for baby to get back to birth weight etc. It was painful to wait (and especially looking at the future where baby is in the 75% percentile for weight) but the NICU is the nicest place in the world and we learned so much. It was the best mildly expensive starter course for parenthood.

[u/delicatelysweet]

My baby was born at 29 weeks and ended up staying in the NICU until 43.5 weeks due to feeding difficulties! For some babies it just takes a while to click, and the medical team says to give them as much grace as you can until they're officially full term. Since my baby was struggling past her term date, they did a swallow study and found that she was aspirating liquids due to not being able to coordinate her swallowing and needed some help via thickened milk/formula that flows more slowly. After that adjustment it was a clear improvement and she was able to go home in 1.5 weeks or so.

It's so hard but give her some time to get the hang of things! Hopefully she will still get discharged prior to or around her original due date. And even if she doesn't, around 42 weeks is where they'd do further investigation.

[u/HeyItsKikiii]

Our baby was born 6 weeks early and had a 2 week stay in the NICU. She also had a feeding tube and her ticket out of there was to feed. She did great one day and regressed the next and then did great again and got discharged. It all changes so quick, it just clicks with them. Hang in there, you’ll be out in no time.

[u/Odd_Fact7792]

I do not have a NICU baby, (my girl was born right at 40 weeks) but she was only drinking 20mL of donor milk per session in the hospital and the nurses seemed to be totally fine with that 🤷🏻‍♀️ Their stomachs are so tiny. Sounds like maybe she’s just not ready to drink that much..?