For quite a while on our postpartum unit, we've been dropper feeding or
finger feeding our breast babies who need supplementation, have never had a
problem. Today, one of the neonatologists (who occasionally sees normal
newborns whose moms haven't chosen a pediatrician), said he'd never heard of
such a thing, that babies who were dropper fed would never learn to suck,
that the risk of aspiration was high and that, if one of "his" babies
aspirated, he'd have somebody's job. (Presumably mine.) Now, I've checked
my references at work, have found several references to cup feeding, not too
many to dropper / finger feeding, and those were mostly in passing. Do any
of you have written or unwritten policies or bibliographic references re
using alternate feeding methods for breast babies that you could email to me?
I'd be most grateful for any info you can share, whether it relates to NICU
or NBN. I'll be making an appointment to talk with him, and I'd like to be
as well armed as possible. I don't think he can do anything about any babies
but his own, and, as I said, there aren't many of those, but his comments
were welcome to the nurses who aren't very supportive of brestfeeding in
general, so I'd like to head him off ASAP if I can. TIA.
Judy Dunlap, RNC, IBCLC
|