My first baby, Carla, was born with a Tracheo-esophageal fistula, ventricular
septal defect and laryngo tracheo malacia. She was in NICU for 2 mos. and was
trached at 2 weeks. She did not go to the breast until she was 2 mos. old
(and off the respirator for about a month). She would not take a bottle for
the nurses, the gastostomy tube had malfunctioned, and she really had no
venous access left but she took to the breast like a champ!!  She made
remarkable improvement after that, and bf helped us both to heal after the
very traumatic experience of NICU. I think that it must have been tough for
her to swallow with a tube in her throat. During letdown, she would usually
pop off the breast and put her ring and middle fingers into her mouth (like
the hand sign for I love you) to get more control over the flow-----Then she
would go right back to the breast and suck well. The other difficulty was
that she had a big problem with reflux and she would sometimes vomit right
into the opening of the trache tube. It was pretty scary but I always kept a
fresh suction catheter handy and she never got an aspiration pneumonia.
Never-the-less, life became a lot easier when she was decannulated at 4 mos.
She was supposed to keep the trache for 18 mos but she did so well at home
with bf that they took it out early. Breastfeeding made an unbelievable
difference in her health and she is a great kid 13 years later. Please let me
know if you need any more info.
Roberta Cricco-Lizza RN MPH MS