I have 2 thoughts on how to use a syringe as a supplementer.   First, I
preferred to use the 3.5 French tubes when available.  I feel they are a
little less invasive in the baby's mouth (the smaller the better).
However, sometimes when using expressed colostrum it is a little too "thick"
to flow easily through the tube in which case I would resort to the size 5.

Second, I frequently found that the plunger would now move freely.  I would
always plunge in and out of whatever fluid was going to be used a few times
first.  This would "lubricate" the plunger so it could move more easily.  I
suppose what happened was that a few molecules of milk would get between the
edge of the plunger and the inside of the tube.  While some babies would
suck vigorously enough to draw down the plunger themselves, I found
frequently that pushing the plunger just enough to introduce a few drops
into baby's mouth would be needed.  Not needing to push worked when baby was
able to nurse, but for some reason mom wasn't available.  In other words, it
was an alternative method of supplementing.  However, when there were some
feeding issues on the part of baby, using such a device was part of helping
baby learn to nurse and sometimes that included actively getting some milk
into baby's mouth when he wasn't doing that himself.  Let's face it, suction
isn't the whole factor in nursing.  When baby's actions compress the breast,
milk should go into the mouth.  Baby can't compress the syringe, so pressing
on the plunger compensates for that.  The problem is that there is a real
tendency to force more milk into the mouth that is appropriate.  If the
syringe isn't "pre-lubricated" there is a danger of suddenly having it move
too far when too much pressure has to be applied to get it to move at all.

 

Winnie


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