Weaning off Tube Feeding

Question

Sorry if this has already been asked. I'd like to research more but this is somewhat time sensitive.

We're trying to get our precious newborn weaned off of syringe tube feeding. It's been the "easy" way to make sure he's getting enough fluids, which is important for getting his jaundice down. However, it's doing a number on mommy's breasts, with them getting neither a good latch nor sufficient let down to avoid getting engorged. We are just transitioning from colostrum to milk, so the flow is not very much, and baby does not know to wait for it when the tube is so ready and free flowing. As a result he gets frustrated every time we try to get him to latch, and it seems to just be getting worse. We're thinking of pulling the tube for a bit and just making him get hungry enough to try even slow breastfeeding, just so he can realize it works, and so that the stimulation will eventually increase the supply. Any ideas on how we can retire the tube and get mommy and baby going strong on just the breastfeeding?

P.S. - Answers to the question as asked would be appreciated. We've considered bottle feeding, and at times have resorted to that just to give mommy some much needed rest. But that doesn't solve the engorgement problem, and we'd really rather try to make this breastfeeding thing work.

Thanks, tired tube helper daddy

Answer 1

This is not really an answer, more of a suggestion: can you find some help from a lactation consultant or a local breastfeeding support service? Of course in person would be better but given the limited time and the current situation with the pandemic also a phone consultation could help.

Assuming you are in the US, there's La Leche League and possibly there are further options at the local level, I think your pediatrician should be able to direct you on the possible options.

My experience with my son was similar in the sense that although he thankfully wasn't premature he had a hard time with taking on a good latch and for the first two-three weeks only latched through silicone tips. Weaning him off those while starting lactation was hell, and I had help from my mother who had breastfed and from a local breastfeeding support service. I feel for you deeply.

A thing that helped was learning how to manually express milk. It helps both with the engorgement and it can help also the baby, if the mom is able to get the milk flowing before attaching the baby, he will get some 'easy' milk and then possibly be more motivated to suck. For learning that there are online resources and also some youtube videos (if you manage to dodge the weird stuff).

A last thing, as anongoodnurse was saying, be careful of letting him sleep longer as he may still be too young for hunger being coordinated with the need for food.

Best of luck to the three of you! I hope you'll manage to make breastfeeding work because it's a great thing for your baby.

Answer 2

Happy to say mother and baby are still doing well, thank God. We seem to have something working out, so I figured I'd update just in case this situation is similar for someone else.

We had our personal pediatrician come by and examine mother and baby on day 3, and she offered some very helpful insights and advise. She said baby did not appear to be overly jaundiced, which was one of the main things motivating us to use the feeding tube/syringe at all costs. She advised using no further formula supplement at all to make things as little confusing to baby as possible, and to provide mommy as much let down as possible. One of the very helpful things was where she assured us that pumping to avoid engorgement was not needed as frequently as we had been doing, which was a great relief to mommy since not only was it somewhat painful, but it also took a good deal of time away from much needed rest. To actually get the baby latching well on a good flow, she advised using a pillow to provide some of the support that had been coming from mommy's strained arm. The big thing there was that lactating is a parasympathetic function, which basically means it really only works well when the body is nice and relaxed, so straining to keep the baby in place was slowing the flow.

That's all a bit jumbled, sorry. Daddy is still tired. But I hope I can put it all together with how it all ended up working out. Pillow made mommy more relaxed, so better flow. We were going to use a little syringe to entice a latch, but that ended up not being necessary, baby was hungry, flow was good, so latch was good. I guess it might have helped that syringe feeding had at least given some steps in the right direction, to establish the notion in baby that at breast when hungry and sucking gives some kind of milk. It also helped that baby was not tired and fussy, and so had more patience to work for the latch. We've not used the syringe since then, mommy is getting much more let down and a very good flow, baby is healthy, still a little jaundiced but in a good way to getting out of it, and is almost a pound heavier than birth weight. So again, thank God we seem to be on the right track now. If any of that does not seem quite well connected or make sense, likely not your fault, I'm just working off this sleep deficit and am still a little scatterbrained, though lately I've been getting some good stretches of night's rest. Just wanted to get something posted while the details were still a little fresh. Because documentation. Please let me know if anything could use clarification, and thanks again for all the comments and advice.