Hi Sonya,
As a former nicu nurse I am a fan of nasogastric (gavage) feeds for
premies. Virtually always the pediatricians in our nursery (not a Level 3
nicu) "force" the babies to suck who are too early to do so consistently.
(for example 32-34 wk babies). The babies can't take enough volume (bottle
feeds are ordered) nor remove much milk from the breast on the rare
occasions that is "allowed." Far better, to me, to have the babies being
held STS with parent, practice breast time, and gavage feed for a time. My
point being nasogastric feeds are very helpful, in my opinion, for premies
who are going to breastfeed and so do not get exposed to bottle feeding.

If your situation is referring to term, well babies or even early term
babies or near term babies, I agree that there probably is a better way.
However, I think you should be very careful since you do have a (rare) true
breastfeeding advocate. Here is one way you might approach the doctor.
First, wait til you have a family that says something negative about NG
feeds or says that they wish they could feed the baby themselves or a baby
who fights the tube or something like that. Try to find a recent,
doctor-oriented journal article or case report, where an alternate feeding
method was used successfully (like syringe or dropper or finger feeding
with the tube. Just for that case, see if you can ask the dr if you could
try that method and cite the mother or baby factors I just mentioned as a
reason to try something different. You can also point out that baby can go
home with that alternate method, but that (in my experience) parents don't
usually go home NG feeding their well baby who is inconsistent at the
breast.

I hope this helps.

Laurie Wheeler RN MN IBCLC
Mississippi USA

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