Help with sleepy baby who won't suck and swallow.

[kriswrite]

My son is now 11 days old, and he continues to loose weight. He was born at 8 lbs. 12 oz. and is now 8 lbs. 1 oz. In an effort to see what the problem is, I found Dr. Jack Newman's website ( http://www.thebirthden.com/Newman.html ) which has a terrific video showing a good way to know how much your baby is swallowing. Turns out, our baby is mostly using me as a pacifer (he's chomping, not sucking). In addition, he falls asleep at the breast almost instantly. (Usually within a minute or two.)

How do I keep him awake? I'm the mom of a former micro preemie, too, so I think I know all the tricks for waking a baby to eat. I tickle his feet and body, talk to him, stroke his cheek and hair, undress him...Nothing works for very long. I end up putting him down, only to have him wake a few minutes later, crying for milk.

And how do I get him to swallow instead of just chew??? I break his latch and reposition, but this rarely works.

Tonight, I actually gave our baby a bottle of formula, so I could get a better idea of his intake. He drank about 1 1/2 oz. of formula...with a great deal of effort...then took the breast for a minute. So sleepiness is still an issue, even with the bottle.

Thanks for helping this very worried mama.

Kristina
www.MiracleBabyAnastasia.com

[lnitti]

Have you had your baby's thyroid checked? a hypothyroid baby can be very sleepy and not have enough energy to nurse or take a bottle - and or course loose weight because of it.

[kriswrite]

He sees the pediatrician on Friday. I will bring that up!

I should also mention that another trick I use is to compress milk into his mouth. This usually only gets 2 or 3 additional sucks out of him.

Kristina

[tanyalynn]

Do you think something about the physical act of sucking is too difficult? I don't know what types of things would cause that, but I'm wondering if something like CST would help if there are palate issues or structural things like that. And I've heard there are posterior ties that are difficult to see, but I don't know much about them (bringing it up just in case you haven't considered it).

When my son was tired, he was jaundiced and weak from lack of milk, so pumping and giving him some by spoon perked him up, and just a few feedings like that was all it took to turn things around. Maybe a few extra feedings (do you have a pump? and a spoon or syringe or some people can even do it with a cup) and see if that extra feedings, maybe closer than your LO seems to need, help if it's just tiredness?

No more ideas here, good luck!

[PatioGardener]

If your baby isn't transfering milk well from the breast, pumping will keep up your supply until he is able to transfer well. Until then, you may want to try spoon or syringe feeding at the start of a feed to get him a bit of milk and take the edge off the hunger so he may suck longer at the breast, and then give more by cup or syringe when he comes off the breast. Then pump to make sure you keep your supply up. it's hard work, but will help to avoid formula and bottles.
Hang in there!
(also, has someone checked for a tongue-tie?)