Hi everyone. I am working with a baby who is now 10 days old. Mom intended
to have natural delivery, but her water broke and pitocin started, then
epidural, and difficult pushing phase resulting in significant head
molding. Nothing new around here! Anyway, not surprisingly, baby did not
latch first 24 hours and was very sleepy. Next day nipple shield, more due
to nature of mom's nipples. Long story short. RPS helped nipples but baby
still not latching. I don't think the shield worked well. Baby can suck
well on finger or pacifier-seems to do better on more narrow "teats". Mom
went home finger feeding.

It is always so hard to summarize these stories. Baby is still very sleepy.
Voids and stools were slow to increase. Of course there was an elevated
bili, but that is resolved now. Baby has even had 2 visits with an OT.
Finally baby is now stooling well and voiding well. She still attempts to
latch onto breast, but only sucks a few times.  It almost seems as if baby
just needs to sleep-since so much has been done to her the past 10 days.

The main problem through all of this is the stimulation baby needs to
continue a feed. Whether finger, bottle, or breast, baby starts off with a
few sucks and then stops. Mom has to move her finger around or bottle to
keep her sucking. We think she would actually breastfeed well if she
wouldn't stop after a few sucks! A tube at the breast does not work because
she needs more than just milk going into her mouth-she needs the
stimulation of something moving.  Needless to say, feedings do take
awhile.  I know this is a fairly common problem, but I actually have a mom
who is trying to breastfeed-many of the moms here stop before the first
week or pump and not try the breast anymore with problems like this.

Any suggestions on how to help this baby?  Is it just a matter of time?
Thank you!  :-)

Christine Lichte LLL Leader, IBCLC

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