Feeding Your Tiny Fighter… Understanding The Unique Needs Of Feeding Preterm Babies

“There are certain things that just take time to resolve, and those are issues of neurodevelopment… They take time and you can’t speed them up. You can’t make a baby grow and develop faster… As a parent, once you can be clear on why this is happening, that there’s nothing wrong and you’re not doing anything wrong then it’s much easier to see ‘that this is what’s happening now, this is what we expect to change and when.’”

 

-Christine Staricka
 

💫 If you had a magic wand, what is one thing you would want to know about your preterm/late preterm baby? 💫

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Breastfeeding a slightly early-term baby is possible but there is A LOT you need to know before following the advice the internet or a well-meaning friend offers. There is a lot of misunderstanding, misinformation, and risks associated with treating a slightly preterm baby like a smaller version of a full-term baby!

 

In this episode, we chat about sooo many things including:

🐣The difference between preterm and late preterm babies

🐣 Temporary tools to get your preterm baby to a “normal” feeding schedule

🐣 Information you can’t always find online or on social media

🐣 Signs of readiness to eat in preterm babies

🐣Assisting a preterm baby in getting enough food

🐣Tongue-tie and other functional feeding issues

🐣Common misunderstandings people have about feeding babies born before full term

🐣What’s the deal with Fortification?

🐣When to bring in help and who to call

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Chapters:

3:51 What is the pre-term baby vs late pre-term?
 

6:43 What to do when I’m not allowed to breastfeed while in the NICU?
 

9:30 How to know when baby is ready for direct breastfeeding
 

12:06 What if the baby is sleeping all day long?

19:31 Issues that can interfere with feeding

25:16M Is it realistic to start off with exclusive breastfeeding only?

30:22 What are the risks of treating a late pre-term infant like they are full-term?

33:45 Is it true that late pre-term babies have a higher incidence of rehospitalization?
 

37:32 What is Preterm Infant Behaviour Scale?
 

38:54 Difference between sucking and longest sucking burst
 

40:14 What is human milk fortification?

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Connect with Christine!

Follow her on Instagram: @ibclcinca

Check out her website: https://christinestaricka.com/

Or listen to her podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lactation-training-lab-podcast/id1534497003