Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Apr
27
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“You’ll Get Him Home Sooner If You Just Bottle Feed.”
“You’ll get him home sooner if you just bottle feed,” – NICU nurse to breastfeeding mother of a NICU baby.
There are 33 comments to this post.
Oh really?
So all that stuff about how breastfeeding reduces the risk of a premature baby dying of NEC is just bunk?
Or how breastfeeding helps reduce the risk of respiratory problems?
And I’m sure the research behind this article is all nonsense.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/10/eveningnews/main4935867.shtml
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Dear Nurse:
Are you holding the baby hostage? Because it sounds more as if YOU want to get home sooner, and therefore you’re dangling a carrot in front of the mom.
As a NICU mom (briefly), there was nothing I wanted more than to get my baby home. False promises that make your job easier have no place in NICU care.
Love,
Me (and everyone else)
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first time mommy had this to say,
Apr 27, 2011 @ 12:58 pm (Quote)
NOT TRUE!!!!!
My friend’s baby was born prematurely and was in the NICU. The nurses told her she would have a better chance of getting him home sooner IF he received breastmilk! He was in there a total of 10 days. The nurses even said it would have been much longer had he been bottle fed!
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Hah, I’m not even a nicu mom and I know that’s BS. I second Annie B. Is Similac not supplementing your income as much as you’d like?
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first time mommy Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 1:21 pm (Quote)
it’s weird. i see people keep mentioning similac on here lol but at hospitals ALL i’ve seen is gerber good start stuff.
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Lklsmama Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 1:34 pm (Quote)
The hospital in my town uses Similac.I just grab everything out of the free bag, leave it in the hospital room and use the bag to carry all the paperwork and gifts people have brought. 
Though in 3 births I’ve only had one person try to push a bottle on me.
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Sheva Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 2:51 pm (Quote)
And I got Enfamil. But they’re all the same, IMO.
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Kail Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 3:17 pm (Quote)
My hospital wins! (or loses lol) I got samples of Similac and Enfamil and coupons for Good Start.
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jenni Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 4:22 pm (Quote)
At this hospital its similac and Enfamil but i’ve never seen gerber!
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Heather P Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 5:25 pm (Quote)
I got Enfamil. I’m pleased to say though that that hospital has since stopped giving out formula samples to all mothers. Every hospital in our area no longer gives out formula samples routinely. 
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Anne Marie Reply:
April 30th, 2011 at 1:17 am (Quote)
Our hospital doesn’t give out bags of formula at all. They also don’t have a nursery and make sure their nurses are trained LCs . We were very blessed to birth where we did, I gather…
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devil is in the details Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 3:40 pm (Quote)
When I was a candy striper that hospital had every brand available based on the doctor’s preference. Part of my job was to pack the “go home” bags. (Please, don’t shoot me I was a kid.)
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Lindsey had this to say,
Apr 27, 2011 @ 1:16 pm (Quote)
This isn’t mine but a NICU nurse told me the exact same thing for my hypoglycemic son. I refused formula and he ended up with an IV of glucose (which made me an open target because I was the mom who would rather my son be ‘jabbed’ than just have a little formula). After 5 days of glucose IV’s the Ped. told me that since it took so long for him to stabilize that all the formula would have done was compromise his gut flora…. ummmm, you think?! That’s why I refused!
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And he’s more likely to be back sooner if I bottlefeed too.
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devil is in the details Reply:
April 28th, 2011 at 5:59 am (Quote)
Ding ding ding. Once again they are using weight as a hard and fast rule rather than a general guide and not looking at the long term or the individual. They know that breast is best. They also know that baby must be 5 lbs or whatever to go home. What gets them to 5 lbs faster becomes more important than what is best for their development. Very sad when the system takes over.
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NICU mom, DS born at 31 weeks, and my nurses told me the exact opposite when I wanted to give up nursing because he didn’t seem to “get it”. Instead, they tweaked the feeding score scale and supported me. And I nursed him for 17 weeks. Nice when medical professionals actually know what’s best for the patient.
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I’m a NICU mom to a 29 weeker and I caved to this. He had to take ALL his feeds orally and they weren’t set up to have me there 24hours a day, so we bottle fed him pumped milk. At that point he’d already been in the NICU for 6 weeks and I just wanted him home. After another week and a half he took everything by bottle.
It took me nearly 2 months to get him transferred from bottle to breast – and then he went on to nurse until he was 22 months old.
I really wish we could have started out BFing.
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Robyn Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 7:14 pm (Quote)
I’m glad you were able to salvage a nursing relationship with your son. However, when people refer to “bottle feeding”, they typically refer to formula feeding. Getting bottles of pumped milk is far better for a NICU baby than giving them bottles of formula. You still did what was best, even if the container wasn’t what you would have preferred.
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first time mommy Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 7:21 pm (Quote)
WTG, mommy!!! that’s so awesome you worked through and got him on the breast =D
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OP, here.
My son was born at 34 and 2, after an insisted c-section for preeclampsia.
He was in the NICU for 4 long weeks, I believe, because of the booby traps set up for nursing mothers.
The protocol in order to go home was 8 feeds by mouth, in a 24 hr period, at least 50 ccs each. (Full term babies don’t do this).
I kept asking when we could go home, and this was an answer I got.
Unfortunately, my son received every type of feed possible (formula in a bottle, formula in a nose tube, fortified breast milk in a bottle, fortified breastmilk in the tube, regular breastmilk in a bottle, regular breastmilk in the tube, and breastmilk from the boob. As soon as he was discharged, we went all boob all the time. And 16 months later, we’re going strong…
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This is sad but true… the requirements for the NICU babies to go home is to take all feeds PO (by mouth), maintain their oxygen sats on room air, and maintain their temp. The PO feeding requirement leads to a lot of bottles because they are the easiest and fastest way to declare the baby capable of all-PO feeding. I have met very few moms able to avoid any bottles in the NICU. It basically means insisting on gavage feeding for every feed at which the mother is not present, and it is hard for the mother to be present 24/7 because the NICU is not set up for that. So it absolutely can mean that the baby stays longer. It is very frustrating because direct breastfeeding is best and least taxing for these babies.
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amanda Reply:
April 28th, 2011 at 8:03 am (Quote)
it is so sad that there aren’t more ways for mom (or dad, or gramma, or someone!) to stay with babe while in nicu. we had a very short time with nicu with our one son and i felt SO in the way, as though i didn’t belong at all and was imposing even being there. my son wasn’t able to do kangaroo care or feedings or anything and so there wasn’t anything i could *do* and i just felt like i was taking up space.
Same hospital – parents HAVE to stay 24/7 on the ped floor with kids – why not nicu??
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Lisa Reply:
April 28th, 2011 at 8:51 am (Quote)
My 31-weeker never had a bottle in his 37-day hospital stay, and we weren’t the exception. Our NICU really supported breastfeeding. It all depends on how supportive the hospital is.
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tuesday Reply:
April 28th, 2011 at 12:34 pm (Quote)
This.
My daughter was born at 32w4d, and while we got her all breastmilk (with some fortification for extra calories), bottle feeding was key while she was still in the NICU. I couldn’t be there all the time, and I didn’t want to insist on the gavage tube.
My usual advice to moms with babes in the NICU is to do what you need to do to get the baby home, and sort out nursing in the comfort and peace of your own space, without interruptions, care schedules, or a peanut gallery of professionals “trying to help”.
I think it’s awesome when families make it straight from the gavage tube to all breast feeding, but it’s just not possible for all families – it’s not just that the NICU isn’t set up, it’s that family leave policies in the US suck (I know of lots of moms who went back to work within a week of delivery and took all their leave when baby got out of the NICU), and if you have more than one child you have to arrange other childcare, and it can just be crazy hard.
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Nevermind that you’ll also expose his poor gut to all sorts of things it’s not ready to deal with yet. That he’s more likely to get infections and all sorts of problems. That breastmilk is even more important for NICU babies than it is for healthy full term ones…and that’s saying something.
Wait…why are YOU the one in charge of deciding what is best for that child? You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about. You should be congratulating and supporting this mother. SHE at least is doing what’s best for her kid…even though it’s hard.
OP–I’m sorry you had to deal with this cretin. My hat’s off to you for nursing your baby with “experts” like this around.
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