Forum : Mums

how old now and how prem? my niece was 4 weeks premature and she simply couldnt suck due to prematurity and she was tube fed (nowhere near as bad as it sounds), but as soon as she got a few good feeds in her she quickly gained strength and was bottle feeding in no time.

My baby was 5 weeks prem back In April and he spent 2 weeks in neonatal unit, simply because he did not have the strength to suck a bottle. My advice is that you don't use the hospital bottles, use Avent stage 2 teat, its really soft and because it has 2 holes in the teat it flows out well. My son turned a corner once he started using these bottles rather than the awful SMA glass bottle ones I was using! My son was also tube fed for about a week and its not that bad, they fed him while he was sleeping he didn't know anything about it. I understand how distressing it is but its only for a short period of time and the baby really needs milk. Hope that helps

hi claire my daughter was 8 weeks prem and fed through a tube for his health its the best you will soon see him thriving my daughter is 11 now and a very healthy child i know its easy to say dont worry as all you do is worry they are little fighters you will see

My lil man was 11 weeks early n was tube fed for about 5 weeks. We gave him a dummy as much as possible to help develop the sucking reflex and just waited for him to be ready. he started havin the ocassional bottle of my breast milk after 3 weeks then one day at about 5 weeks he suddenly start breast feeding. Just be patient he'll get there.