I see the "They have to nipple feed 48 hours worth of feeds before they can
go home" line used a lot. This scares some mothers who then relent and allow
the baby to have bottles because they are worried they either wont be able
to meet babies demands for feeds, or that baby will not go home as soon. I
have heard nurses say "Your baby will not get to go home if we don't feed
him or her bottles" <HUGE sigh>. I agree on minimal intervention unless the
baby shows that he needs it. 

Another thing on NG/OG tubes and resultant reflux - this absolutely could be
possible. When you stop to consider that the tube leaves the sphincter open
at the top of the stomach ALL the time while it is in place, it would stand
to reason that some babies who develop reflux later have sphincters that
don't close back up after the tube is removed - sort of like some people
whose ear piercings never close back up when the ear rings are taken out I
suppose, although the majority do close over a period of time. I have heard
of NICUS where the tube is dropped only for the feeding and then removed, to
allow the sphincter to close between feedings so it doesn't get used to
being open, but then what is the level of trauma to the naso or
oropharyngeal tissues and esophagus due to frequent placements of tubes?
Hard to weigh that against the risk of reflux I suppose. I would hope that
those babies are on at least partial breast or bottle feeds so they wouldn't
be getting the tube dropped every 3 hours!

Michelle

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