Wren does not like to drink from the bottle. We have tried all the tricks but he cries and fusses between short periods of sucking. Our best effort had him taking about 30ml at one go (with lots of red-faced complaint). This morning he wouldn't even take 10ml before getting into a frenzy of yelling, arching and spitting with a disgusted expression on his face.
I am not sure whether it is the mechanism of bottle-feeding or the taste of teh Alimentum enriched breastmilk that he objects to. Regardless, he is not getting the 4X 85ml supplemented feeds the nurse required if he was to be tube-free.
I have called our pediatrician but she is on leave till Monday so I may speak with the on-call doctor to see what they recommend. I would like to keep trying till Monday and have scheduled a weight-check at the pediatricians to see how he is doing with more breastfeeding and less of that extra-calorie stuff.
The good news is that without the ng tube his breathing is less noisy and labored and he spits up less. The reflux is very positional and I can barely diaper change him on the wedge after nursing. I have to keep his head quite elevated when he's full. Still, he doesn't seem as distressed after feeding as he used to after an ng-feed. I suspect he is not quite as full as he paces himself a bit. The downside for me is that he wants to eat every 1.5 to 2.5 hours instead of the three hourly formula-tube schedule. Yikes, I am tired.
2 comments:
Shannon - a quick thought - could you change Wren's diaper before nursing instead of afterwards, to limit the potential for reflux? this isn't much of a solution, of course, if he poops straight after nursing. Since Luca and Kenji both had a tendency to fall asleep nursing, I found it preferable to not have to change (and invariably wake) them unless absolutely necessary. - Tam
Instead of bottles you can try finger feeding with a syringe, soft cup feeding, supplemental nursing systems, or Lact-aid feeding. I great video clip about how to use a Lactation Aid can be found at Dr. Jack Newman's website http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml.
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Tracy
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