Hi everyone
I had a call today from a mum whose baby was born at 26 weeks gestation
and is now 35 weeks, on oxygen but otherwise 'well'. She has started
breastfeeding twice a day, and baby is fed via tube (expressed milk) for
all other feeds. Staff at the NICU are pushing to give baby a bottle for
all feeds that mum cannot be present for, as they claim that if baby
doesn't suck a lot now, it will 'forget' how to suck and she will not be
able to feed it by breast or bottle!!!. Mum also has a 1 year old, lives
a distance from the hospital, and has little social support, and hence
cannot be there for all her baby's feeds. She is afraid that bottle will
cause nipple confusion, and called me asking if there was any alternative,
and if it was true that baby would forget how to suck!!. I suggested cup
feeds of expressed milk (or some tube feeds still) and for mum to breast
feed as frequently as possible, but I would love some information or
references from some of you with more experience with prem babies than
myself. The forgetting to suck sounds like a bit of a 'furphy' to me
(Aussie slang for a tall tale), but I would like to know more. Can anyone
help  :)

13 degrees celsius, sunny and fine in winter.

Fiona Coombes
NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor
Family Physician  IBCLC