LACTNET Archives

Lactation Information and Discussion

LACTNET@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Jennifer tieman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 25 Nov 2004 16:20:56 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (49 lines)
Sigh.  Someone recently mentioned that clinical conditions seem to come in
groups.  My latest condition of the month seems to be sleepy babies who
don't want to latch, then get very irritable when you do manage to get them
latched and suck twice then let go and wail.  This is usually paired with a
first time mom who doesn't have a lot of confidence, who quickly starts to
feel like her baby is rejecting her and doesn't want her milk.
My current one is a baby born via cesarean delivery without labor to a
diabetic mom.  Baby was 4344 gms at birth and vigorous and healthy.  Baby
for the first 24 hours would latch briefly, suck only for a very short
burst, then let go and cry.  He anyway maintained his blood sugars just
fine, so we encouraged mom to keep him skin to skin and offer the breast
whenever he showed any cues at all.  By 36 hours, he was sucking even less,
and seemed awake and content when away from the breast, and very irritated
by attempts to latch him.  Mom started pumping after attempted feedings, and
baby was supplemented with her pumped milk (Just a few ccs at a time to
start)  By 48 hours he seemed very sleepy, largely refused to latch at all,
and was jaundiced and had lost about 350 gms.  We supplemented him a little
with formula by syringe, plus mom's pumped milk, plus had her try to latch
him at every feed.  Mom's nipples were just a little flat, probably not a
problem for an aggressive baby, but seemed to put this little guy off.  Our
RN who is working towards certification finally tried a nipple shield with
him, and today he is latching deeply with the shield, and we can hear
audible swallowing and see milk in his mouth and with the shield.  He
latched once to bare breast, also.  It still takes a fair amount of effort
to get him awake and latched on, but hopefully this is a start in the right
direction.  Today, at 72 hours, mom's milk is coming in and it looks like
we're doing better.
What do you all do with these sleepy, poorly latching babies?  This baby was
cesarean delivery, but I see a fair amount of this regardless of mode of
delivery.  Usually there is at the same time another baby on the floor who
looks like it would happily latch onto anything whose mom has no interest
whatsoever in breastfeeding which makes me wonder why on earth these moms
seem to each get the wrong baby!
Jennifer Tieman
Family Physician
Mom to 4, including my toddler nursling Caroline Rose

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

ATOM RSS1 RSS2