Premees

[niritcat]

Premees

Hi Ester! We had a discussion in the forum a few weeks back and I would be interested in your opinion. There were two cases of new mothers of premees who were told that they shouldn´t let their baby feed for more than 10 min. each side until he weighs more than 2 kilo because the breastfeeding uses up too much of his energy. I didn´t take them seriously until someone from the forum agreed with this. What would you say? Thanks, Nirit

 

[אסתר גרוניס IBCLC]

../images/Emo41.gifFeeding preemies

I would not let preemies feed for more than 30 minutes at a time, and if they are very small and it is their first feed, even less time. I usualy recommend to mothers to pump most of the milk before the feed so that the baby will get more concentrated fat milk , thus more calories in less time. The pagia is a whole different world in terms of breastfeeding and everything else, and each case is specific. Once the preemies reach 40 weeks, and are healthy, they can be treated like all other babies.​