Nancy wrote: "There is NO criteria in the BFHI for when to start
breastfeeding a premie! There is no weight, gestational age, post-natal age
etc. criteria."
OK Nancy I stand corrected. There is a section in the yellow 18 hour BFHI
manual that I have on feeding pre-term and low birth weight babies which
gives signs of readiness for when pre-term babies can breastfeed, and there
is a section in Infant Feeding: The Physiological Basis (upon which the BFHI
is based) which states that "organized oesophageal activity does not develop
until about 34 weeks gestation when effective nutritional sucking can be
sustained". However, neither of these give the clear figures which I stated
so I must have obtained them from some other source. Sorry!
Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe