Dear Lactnetters!

I like to tell you one story where using test weighting (pre- and 
postfeeding weights) was the only way one mother could breastfeed her very 
SGA and diabetic baby.

My younger daughter was born at 1998 and she had congenital diabetes and she 
was tiny 1380 g for her 37 weeks. After nine weeks at hospital care (first 
at NICU and then growing at pediatric ward ) with bottles of special 
pre-term formula and EBM she could not breastfeed properly. I could spent 
only a couple of hours at the hospital with her and breastfed her daily at 
hospital after the first NICU-week and pumped the rest of the milk.

She had an insulinpump and NG-tube when she came home and I was aching to 
let her breastfeed just like her older sister had done. Luckily I had got a 
borrowed  electronical scale so I could determine how much milk she got with 
her poor technique and then I could give her extra milk via NG-tube if 
needed, she did not wake up to breastfeed more after a small feeding for 
weeks. Over the weeks I got an understanding how much milk she needed to 
keep her bloodsugars safe and how to adjust her insulin doses ( with the 
help of her endocrinologist ). I could not have brestfeed her without the 
scale. It took 6 weeks until she breastfed beautifully and then another 6 
weeks until she ate well enough so we could get rid of the NG-tube.

She is now 8 years old, I weaned her just before her 3rd birthday. She has 
an auto-immune syndrome with several auto-immune diseases but she is 
extremely bright and positive and strong-willed girl. She uses her 
insulinpump according adults supervise, knows her medications  and is on the 
second grade at school. I am convinced that without our breastfeeding 
relationship which kept us close, gave me strenght and gave her the ultimate 
babyfood she would not have developed so well.

There are places, more common and special ones where one might need to know 
how much milk the baby gets from the breast.

This is only my personal experience.

Best wishes,
Pia Ruohotie, RN, breastfeeding counsellor and educator
From Helsinki, Finland, Scandinavia, Europe

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