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Date: | Mon, 10 Feb 1997 12:45:53 -0500 |
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Barbara Wilson-Clay asks about nipple shields:
My experience has been using only Med..a's nipple shields (both sizes)
and mostly with premies. One case is a mother (who I am still following
and baby is still in our NICU) who was born at 35 weeks and was
displaying huge interest when I first worked with them. She has large,
pendulous breasts and an elastic areola but almost completely flat
nipples. We could get him to latch (using a pinch on the areola
beside nipple) but he was unable to stayed attached. When he paused
after the first sucking burst he would lose the latch, even with careful
support of both baby and breast. He continued to try and was getting
very frustrated so I tried using a small sized shield and he latched
immediately and nursed for 50 minutes! This mother had so much colostrum
that she leaked colostrum copiously from the other side while he was
feeding. We removed him a few times to ensure milk in the shield, even
tho I could hear swallowing. Subsequent test weights have confirmed his
ability to take astounding amounts of milk through the shield. I have
had many instances where premies repeatedly lose the latch and have had
great success using a nipple shield until they are able to stay latched
by themselves. The alternative is to have them miss out on BRF
altogether until they are bigger and stronger. I have seldom found a
problem with milk transfer thru this shield.
Edie Armstrong, IBCLC, Fairfax, Va.
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