In the hospital I work in we have a huge number of near term infants,
 between 35 and 37 weeks.
	They present with their own feeding issues. I have noticed these babies
   might breastfeed well once or twice in 24
 hours.  I am finding that these little babies are subjected to multiple
 glucose checks (heal sticks) in order to verify a stable blood glucose
 level.  Quite often these babies require more calories to push the
 glucose up to normal  than what they are able to get via breastfeeding
 and so they are given formula supplements by the second or 3rd feeding
 of their life.  Now you should know up front...we are a team of 3 LC's
 in this hospital, and get mother pumping asap in order to use her milk
 first (if we can get any).

 In June we (LC's) have been asked to speak at our perinatal conference
 about the feeding challenges of the NTI (near term infant).  These
 babies and mom's are the hardest to work with sometimes, cuz the baby
 LOOKS TERM, but acts premi.  It is such a challenge to get everyone,
 parents, dr's , nurses, etc on board to make this successful.  I feel
 like we still have a way to go before we truly get into a smooth system
 of care delivery.

 I am posting this to request help.  What are others doing?  We have
 talked about sparing calories by using isoletts...but that has draw
 backs in that mom and baby are separated and we keep running out of
 isoletts.    Skin to skin reads well, but it has it's time
 limit.  Sooo.....can we start a discussion about the near term infant?

 Thank You All ahead of time..........Roni Carter RNC, IBCLC

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