I was wondering how long it is safe to let a baby go without latching or feeding following birth before you start any interventions beside skin to skin. I'm speaking of a normal term baby who is just reluctant to latch. My first intervention would be to hand express colostrum and feed it to baby, but I would like to know how long other LC's are waiting for baby to latch. I have a colleague who intervenes within 6 hours and her "go to" is formula via syringe. She in not skilled at hand expression and does not seem comfortable teaching moms to hand express. She prefers to use a hand pump without much success, so she uses formula. I have found after several feeding using a syringe that babies learn very quickly how to suck from the syringe and often are difficult to latch later. I'd love some further thoughts or suggestions. 

Thanks,
Chris Hendershot RN IBCLC

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