Feeding your baby after the NICU

Cardinal POINTS

  • Later on your infant leaves the NICU, you can feed her breast milk, formula or both.

  • Your baby gives you cues for when she's feeling hungry and when she's had enough to swallow.

  • Your baby most likely is eating enough if she'southward gaining weight and makes half dozen to 8 moisture diapers iv to 5 days afterwards birth.

  • If you have problem feeding your babe, ask for help from your baby's health care provider or your lactation consultant.

  • If you're feeding your infant from a canteen, use a cup of warm water to warm breast milk or formula. Never microwave your baby's bottle.

What does your baby eat afterwards the NICU?

Breast milk (milk from your breast) is the all-time nutrient for babies in the showtime twelvemonth of life. Breast milk has antibodies that help keep your babe from getting ill. It contains nutrients that help your babe grow and develop. And it changes equally your babe grows and then he gets exactly what he needs at the right time. This is truthful even if your baby was born prematurely. Premature nascence is birth that happens before 37 weeks of pregnancy.

In the NICU, you may not have been able to feed your infant the way you lot wanted to. For example, some babies in the NICU can't breastfeed direct (feed from the breast). They may not have a expert suck, swallow breathe blueprint to be able to breastfeed well, or breastfeeding may be likewise tiring. Now that you're domicile, you and your baby can become used to breastfeeding together.

You can feed your baby your own breast milk or donor breast milk. Donor breast milk is breast milk that a woman donates to a milk bank. A milk banking company receives and stores donated breast milk, tests it to make sure information technology's safe and sends it to families of babies who need it. Donor breast milk is prescribed by your baby's health care provider. It has all the benefits of your own breast milk.

Formula is a milk product y'all tin can feed your babe instead of breast milk. If you're not breastfeeding or if your baby needs actress nutrients, he may need to have formula. Your baby's provider can recommend one that helps your baby get all the nutrients she needs. Sometimes babies get both breast milk and formula.

How practice you lot know when your baby is set up to eat?

Babies eat a lot, and each baby is unlike. Some babies are hungrier in the morning, and other babies are hungrier at night. Near babies eat every 2 to3 hours, or viii to 12 times a day.  Over time, yous get to know your baby's eating habits.

Ask your baby's provider about how oft to feed your infant to make sure she'south gaining enough weight. If your baby sleeps for long periods of fourth dimension, you may need to wake her up every few hours to eat.

Look for and larn your baby'south feeding cues. Feeding cues are signs that your baby is hungry. Feeding cues include:

  • Rooting. This is turning her head toward annihilation that touches her cheek or oral fissure.
  • Sucking movements or sounds
  • Putting her hand to her mouth
  • Crying. This is a late feeding cue. Attempt to feed your baby before she starts to cry.

To make nighttime feedings easier, you lot may want to put the baby's crib in your room and so she'southward nearby during the night. The American University of Pediatrics (also called AAP) recommends that you lot and your babe sleep in the same room, merely not in the same bed, for the first year of your baby'southward life but at least for the first half-dozen months.

How do yous know when your baby has had enough to eat?

Look for your baby's cues. These are some means your infant is telling you he'due south total:

  • He starts and stops feeding.
  • He unlatches ofttimes or spits out bottle.
  • He slows down or falls asleep.
  • He gets distracted easily.
  • He closes his oral fissure or turns his caput away.

Your infant most likely is eating enough if he'southward gaining weight and makes six to eight wet diapers 4 to 5 days later on birth. If you're worried that he's not getting enough to eat, tell your infant'south provider.

Who tin can aid you lot with breastfeeding later on your babe leaves the NICU?

Most NICU babies can larn to breastfeed. Information technology may take time and practice for you and your infant to get comfortable with information technology. Be patient and inquire for help if yous need it. You tin get breastfeeding help from a lot of dissimilar people:

  • Your health care provider and your baby's provider
  • A lactation consultant. Yous can notice a lactation consultant through your wellness intendance provider or your hospital. Or go to the International Lactation Consultants Association.
  • A breastfeeding peer counselor. This is a woman who breastfed her own children and wants to help and support mothers who breastfeed. She has training to help women breastfeed, but not equally much as a lactation consultant. Y'all can observe a peer counselor through your local WIC diet program. Or visit womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding or call the National Breastfeeding Helpline at (800) 994-9662.
  • A breastfeeding support grouping. This is a group of women who assist and back up each other with breastfeeding. Ask your provider to help find a group about you. Or become to La Leche League.

Can you pump and store breast milk?

Aye. If you're breastfeeding, a breast pump helps y'all remove milk from your breasts. Yous may have used a breast pump in the NICU. Or you may want to use a i now that your babe is home because you lot're going back to work or school. Some moms use a breast pump considering they desire a intermission between feedings or and then their partner can feed the baby.

Subsequently you pump, put your breast milk in containers (bottles or bags) and store them in the refrigerator or freezer. Put just the amount of milk your babe needs for each feeding in the container. Breast milk doesn't last forever, and so write the appointment on the container before yous store information technology. Fresh breast milk is condom at room temperature for 4 hours.

If yous're using formula, how do you know what kind to get?

If you're feeding your infant formula, your baby'south provider can tell you what kind to get and how much to feed your baby. Some babies leave the infirmary on regular infant formula. Other babies need a special formula that has more calories or certain nutrients. Gear up the formula using the package directions or using instructions from your baby'southward health care provider. At that place are three kinds of formula:

  1. Gear up-to-apply liquid formula. You pour this formula right into your baby's canteen.
  2. Full-bodied liquid formula. You add water to this liquid formula earlier giving information technology to your baby.
  3. Dry or powdered formula. Yous add pulverisation to the water before giving information technology to your baby. Utilize the scoop that comes with the formula to measure the right amount. Put the water in the bottle showtime, then the formula, and milk shake well to mix.

If your baby doesn't drink all the formula within 1 hour, throw it away. Give her a new bottle of fresh formula at his next feeding.

How exercise yous make bottle feeding safe for your baby?

If your baby has done well with the nipples and bottles used in the infirmary, enquire to have some habitation with yous. And ask the NICU staff where yous can buy them. If the nipples and bottles used in the hospital didn't work well, attempt unlike kinds to find the ones your baby likes. Make clean and store the nipples and bottles as it says on the package directions.

If y'all're bottle feeding, warm the bottle earlier you requite information technology to your baby. Put the bottle of milk or formula in a cup of warm water. Test the milk on your wrist to brand sure it'southward not too hot—it should exist lukewarm. Never microwave your baby'south bottle. The breast milk or formula tin can oestrus unevenly and burn your baby's mouth.

When bottle feeding, hold your baby upright and support his head so he can breathe and swallow in a comfortable way. You and your partner can take turns so that both of you feel comfy feeding your infant. Canteen feeding is a swell way to exist shut and bond with your babe.

Last reviewed: June, 2019