Nov 6

“You Need To Start Limiting Feedings To 30 Minutes Max, Or Ideally 20 Minutes…”

“You need to start limiting feedings to 30 minutes max, or ideally 20 minutes, every 3 hours. And don’t hold him afterward. He is getting too cold when you hold him. We need to limit the time he spends outside the isolette.” — NICU nurse to mother of a 2-day-old baby with mild hypothermia, who was breastfeeding on demand and holding him skin-to-skin after feedings.

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There are 12 comments to this post.

Rachel had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 9:48 am (Quote)

sounds like the old nurse I had for my son… told me that my son may have to go back in an incubator because he was not holding his temp… meanwhile she had stripped him to weigh him then took his temp…. strip me naked and take my temp and I will be cold too…. sigh is it too much to ask to have nurses that acutally use their head ?

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PeekabooBear had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 10:08 am (Quote)

Take Steps to warm the baby outside of the isolette during feeding and holding times, nobody takes a baby out of a warm environment without ideal warmed up clothes and blankets when the baby must go with them. It’s called prevention of hypothermia. My 1st child had a pre-warmed blancket wrapped around her at birth, only when taken outside in the ambulance, with the now cool blanket and no clothes on, to do apgar scores did she get cold-on her way outside of one hospital, to be taken outside again when going to another hospital. Warmed up winter Clothes, that do not reveal feet along with mittens for hands that have been pre-warmed and pre-warmed blankets- and ideal room temperature also for baby. Also if moms temp can bring baby’s temp back up during ocassional kangaroo cuddles, then that is a good thing.

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road2vba2c had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 11:07 am (Quote)

1. Go away.
2. If you have any questions, see number one.

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Dianne Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:53 pm Dianne(Quote)

Terrific for nearly any occasion !!!

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paula had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 11:35 am (Quote)

Every one of the things the nurse said *could* be valid, depending on the situation of the baby involved. However, none of the those situations existed for the OP’s baby. As already stated, the nurse needed to use her head.

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AK had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 12:27 pm (Quote)

“Thanks for the advice nurse. Now, listen carefully; you need to start limiting your thinking to once every 20 minutes, 30 minutes ideally, every 3 to 4 hours, because your brain is overheating and we should limit that.”

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Sephia Reply:
November 12th, 2012 at 12:33 am Sephia(Quote)

*LOVE*

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Jamie had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 12:45 pm (Quote)

Good thing my daughter stopped at Wal-Mart to get winter clothes as she descended down my birth canal, because God forbid if a mother’s body temp. should match that of her child’s.
*eye roll*

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kat had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 4:41 pm (Quote)

(I don’t know why the comment above is pink. This is my submission and that is not my comment.)

This nurse totally freaked me out about skin to skin, which made me sad later on when I saw how much support there is for it as a method of treating mild hypothermia, e.g. http://journals.lww.com/mcnjournal/Abstract/2006/09000/Proposed_Guidelines_for_Skin_to_Skin_Treatment_of.7.aspx

Granted, we don’t have an isolette at home, but when we called a nurse at our pediatrician’s clinic when the baby had a slightly low temp reading after leaving the hospital, the two things she told me to do were hold him STS and breastfeed.

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paula Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 6:41 am paula(Quote)

I am sorry that the nurse discouraged you from doing to skin to skin (aka kangaroo care). During my daughter’s 9.5 week NICU stay 11 years ago, I did a lot of skin to skin. The evidence shows that the benefits far away the negatives (and it’s usually only the sickest babies who shouldn’t do it, so they’ll reach a point where they can too). After so many years of research (at least 20) showing that there are only positive results, it is sad that some nurses still discourage it. Helping moms (and dads) get situated and putting the babies back in the isolette at the end of the session do make extra work for nurses, but not *that* much extra. I am sorry that you got a nurse with a old mind set.

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Sheva had this to say, Nov 6, 2012 @ 5:19 pm (Quote)

You need to start limiting the amount of trust you put in the machines, and ideally start trusting mother’s instinct and mother nature.
Seriously, you need to listen to the stupid coming out of your mouth and do something about it!!

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