First off, I'm not a professional, just a mommy with a passion, and 
wanting to help another mom out - so pardon me if this is a 'duh' 
question. *laugh*

I have a mother who has a 4month old (born 3 months premature) who 
just came home from the NICU - all the time, she has been pumping for 
him, and using every trick in the book she can think of (btw, her 
hospital is in the US, but it is one that is 'baby friendly' and she 
has been working extensively with the LC's there, etc) to keep her 
supply up.  In efforts to get her son home, she made the mistake of 
getting him on a bottle for some feeds, and breast for some - and he 
has developed a preference to the bottle (#1 Avent nipple), and 
can't/won't take a full feed from mom.  To complicate matters, he has 
a touch of BPD or chronic lung and so his stamina for getting a full 
feed from mom (who is a 'tough to milk breast').

Mom has been putting him to the breast twice a day in NICU before 
coming home, and since being home (as far as I understand), but has 
started to push away, or latches on and 'hangs out'....waiting for 
the bottle.

Her husband goes back to work in 4 weeks (baby will be 5 months old 
by then - 2 months adjusted), and she doesn't feel she can keep up 
with the pumping AND feeding of baby, especially when he's eating as 
much, if not more than she's making.  She has 'maybe a month of 
supply frozen' and she's considering stopping the pumping when her 
husband goes back to work.

She wants to keep up breastfeeding, but doesn't feel she can, and has 
pretty much resigned herself to formula pretty soon. (it's not for a 
lack of trying tho.....she's been thru a lot).

Her big question, is how to use her freezer stash to be the most 
beneficial.  Should she be exclusively using EBM until she runs out, 
then go to formula?  Should she be giving one bottle of EBM a day, 
and drawing out the stash for months?  Which is better for baby? 
(this is a very new question for me, so I didn't know how to answer 
her).

And if anyone can think of any suggestions for her - she's tried dom, 
and several other drugs/herbs, water, oatmeal, pumping every 2 hours, 
using an SNS (which she's doing now), etc.  She really would like to 
keep it up, but just doesn't feel she can handle pumping and bottle-
feeding (along with things like eating, sleeping, etc).  

I'm hoping someone out there has some answers to her freezer stash 
question, and maybe even a suggestion that we haven't thought of for 
her to continue.

TIA!



--
Pauline M. Gabriel                        [log in to unmask]
Breastfeeding supporter for all stages of a woman's life. :)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/first-time-nursing/ 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extended_nursing/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttcbreastfeeding/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pregnant_nursing/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tnl/

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