New here 31 wker born all natural

[madeitX2]

What an awesome thread to have on mothering. My 4th baby is a week old now a 32 wker!
I am very involves in his care and started kangaroo care on day 3. I have been very selected on what he receives and he is perfect. It has not been easy battling with his doc with a meeting with social services too. His doc has also lied. It is so was that a doc can be so cold as to threaten you when dealing with something so amazing and beautiful!

My main question can a preemie be weaned off caffine after only being on it 3 days.? Or what is the shortest life span of caffine?

Has anyone did breast only when feeding started?

So happy to be here.

[Ratchet]

They did not wean my DD (27-weeker) off caffiene, they just stopped it when she reached a certain age (I don't remember how old- alot older than 32 weeks- whenever the occurance of apnea/bradycardia of prematurity decreases, I guess).  It stays in their system for 7 days, they told me. 

We are not a breastfeeding success story yet, but taking baby steps forward at 6 months of life.  She had some fairly big feeding challenges though and I think you will find plenty of folks who have done exclusive breastfeeding- scroll back through this forum on one of those long stretches of waiting around the hospital...

Best wishes on your journey!  Congrats on your new addition, glad to hear all is going well!

[madeitX2]

Thanks for sharing ratchet. We are doing good. The NICU wants to start fortifing my bm with the human milk fortified. Great ingredients. I just want to trust my bm and skip it based on my bm being the best for him as it changes to meet his needs.

Anyone else skip the fortified?

[maryeliz]

I think it really depends on how your baby is growing.  My DD was very small (IUGR) and gained very, very slowly.  I agreed to do the HMF because I wanted to get her home.  After she came home we mostly breastfed, but did at least one bottle a day of BM with added neosure.

If you are unsure, I'd ask to see your babies growth chart.  If your baby is gaining steadily, the HMF may not be needed.  I'd also be reluctant to use HMF for any baby who had shown signs of NEC.  My DD never seemed to have a problem digesting the HMF, but every baby is different.

[~bookcase~]

for babies over 32 weeks or 1500g there is evidence to support that hmf may not be necessary. have a search on pubmed...

and congratulations btw. i hope it all continues peacefully for you

[lesliesara63]

I really didn't feel prepared to argue with a dietician over what nutrients my dd's did not get by missing the last trimester - even though I absolutely feel breast milk is all that is needed. All three of my babes had HMF, even the two that were over 1500g - only one came home on it. I was at the NICU from 9-4ish every day so I nursed them at 9,12,3 once they were ready for that. Whatever they didn't take from the breast was given in their NG tube. When they were nursing well enough that I consented to bottles they slowly started bottling 1 feed a day and increased from there. Once were taking mostly bottle feeds overnight (they would gavage them at 6AM so they would be rested & ready for me at 9) they then started topping up with a bottle instead of NG tube. I don't know much about caffiene. One of my girls was on it b/c she was having bradys due to an infection. Once the infection cleared up they took her off.