I completely forgot that nearly a year ago I promised here that I would share the files Dr. Jack Newman sent me about getting ready to breastfeed a potentially hypotonic newborn. I asked him if he had any experience with newborns with achondroplasia, which he didn't, nevertheless this information will be extremely helpful to anyone expecting to breastfeed their baby.
Fi had really good tone, the only thing was that she was only 45 cm at birth, which is exactly 2 inches shorter than my other children, I suppose each newborn is different, and feeding each of my kids has been different, but with Fi, I had to focus on the head positioning (making sure I was watching her neck as we had no confirmed diagnosis at the time) and she was so much shorter that I could not push her bottom towards me with my elbow. It took about 3 days to sort it out and then she grew loads and is still feeding away a million times every day at nearly 1 year old (lucky I work from home).
Anyhow, here are the files:
Getting off to a good start: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B23x_OlN3FTNT3JDXzEteEQzTmM/edit?pli=1
Ok, this one is amazing: my manual dexterity is literally 0 and I am not a visual learner, I learn by reading and understanding... This file has everything... What is a good latch: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B23x_OlN3FTNcnFjX0JkWGpOS0U/edit
Causes of latch problems:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B23x_OlN3FTNUmpiWTM3Y0lydnc/edit
When baby won't latch: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B23x_OlN3FTNX1JkTnZUa0d2VnM/edit
There are also really good videos on his web-site for the more visual learners.
Showing posts with label Breastfeeding a baby with a skeleal dysplasia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breastfeeding a baby with a skeleal dysplasia. Show all posts
Friday, 25 May 2012
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Breastfeeding Fi
I know it is not directly related to hypo, but this is my blog and I would really like to talk about breastfeeding.
I had a really hard time nursing our first child, Tara, I lasted 6 months, pumping every day and topping her up with formula. It was hard-hard work and I felt like a complete failure throughout the entire process.
When when I fell pregnant with Lia, I knew that I was going to fix this and started reading up on the subject. I realized that when I was expecting Tara all my time was spent on preparing to give birth and not a minute on learning about bf. I thought it was a natural thing that would just happen and while it is a natural thing, some need some guidance and help.
I found the life saving breastfeeding web-site by Dr Jack Newman: http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/ and it solved all my problems, it really did. I realized that although we were seen by several lactation consultants, Tara never had a good latch, I had no idea when she was drinking as opposed to nibbling...
I also learnt how misleading all the baby books focusing on schedules and timing feeds were. I realized that keeping Lia in our room and letting her sleep in our bed if she wanted to and we wanted to was perfectly fine, these discoveries made our life much easier.
When I had Lia, I literally had my husband read out the latching steps from Dr. Jack Newman's book and she fed like a dream. I realized how easy breastfeeding was and ended up feeding her for a bit over 2 years. She kind of stopped feeding by the time Fi was about 2 weeks old.
When I found out that Fi was going to have a skeletal dysplasia once I went through the initial shock, grieving, anger and all the other emotions I won't even attempt to name, I swung into research mode again. One of my first questions was: will I be able to breastfeed this baby? Why did I ask this I wonder, sure part of it is that I know that breast milk provides her the optimum nutrition, she gets all my antibodies, blablablah... But I guess the bigger reason was probably me asking, if I was going to be able to physically breastfeed her, will she be well enough, can I bond with her that way, will I be able to comfort her that way. I now knew from experience that even throughout the terrible twos breastfeeding is extremely helpful, so I wanted to be very ready, whatever her condition was going to be after birth, I was going to nurse her.
So I read up about achondroplasia as that was a potential well-documented diagnosis for her and saw that often achon babies are said to be hypotonic. I have e-mailed Dr Newman and he replied back to me with a detailed description about how to best feed a hypotonic baby (I will try and post this tomorrow).
As it turned out, Fi wasn't hypotonic at all, but she was 5 cm shorter than my other 2 kids so once again I spent hours in the hospital (they had internet access on fancy screens now) going through the magic list, seeing how I could make it work for me and Fi. She also has a bit of a tongue tie, but somehow I managed to work through that quite easily.
When I am writing this post, she is 6 weeks old and is about 4100 grams, her birth weight was 2700, so I think it is fair to say that she is feeding rather well. She is normally quite restless early in the morning so I just put her next to me in our bed, let her nibble and enjoy that special intimate moment that noone else will ever have with her, I know every little eyelash on her, she is mine, well between 4-7 AM anyhow before my husband or the other 2 girls get to her.
I had a really hard time nursing our first child, Tara, I lasted 6 months, pumping every day and topping her up with formula. It was hard-hard work and I felt like a complete failure throughout the entire process.
When when I fell pregnant with Lia, I knew that I was going to fix this and started reading up on the subject. I realized that when I was expecting Tara all my time was spent on preparing to give birth and not a minute on learning about bf. I thought it was a natural thing that would just happen and while it is a natural thing, some need some guidance and help.
I found the life saving breastfeeding web-site by Dr Jack Newman: http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/ and it solved all my problems, it really did. I realized that although we were seen by several lactation consultants, Tara never had a good latch, I had no idea when she was drinking as opposed to nibbling...
I also learnt how misleading all the baby books focusing on schedules and timing feeds were. I realized that keeping Lia in our room and letting her sleep in our bed if she wanted to and we wanted to was perfectly fine, these discoveries made our life much easier.
When I had Lia, I literally had my husband read out the latching steps from Dr. Jack Newman's book and she fed like a dream. I realized how easy breastfeeding was and ended up feeding her for a bit over 2 years. She kind of stopped feeding by the time Fi was about 2 weeks old.
When I found out that Fi was going to have a skeletal dysplasia once I went through the initial shock, grieving, anger and all the other emotions I won't even attempt to name, I swung into research mode again. One of my first questions was: will I be able to breastfeed this baby? Why did I ask this I wonder, sure part of it is that I know that breast milk provides her the optimum nutrition, she gets all my antibodies, blablablah... But I guess the bigger reason was probably me asking, if I was going to be able to physically breastfeed her, will she be well enough, can I bond with her that way, will I be able to comfort her that way. I now knew from experience that even throughout the terrible twos breastfeeding is extremely helpful, so I wanted to be very ready, whatever her condition was going to be after birth, I was going to nurse her.
So I read up about achondroplasia as that was a potential well-documented diagnosis for her and saw that often achon babies are said to be hypotonic. I have e-mailed Dr Newman and he replied back to me with a detailed description about how to best feed a hypotonic baby (I will try and post this tomorrow).
As it turned out, Fi wasn't hypotonic at all, but she was 5 cm shorter than my other 2 kids so once again I spent hours in the hospital (they had internet access on fancy screens now) going through the magic list, seeing how I could make it work for me and Fi. She also has a bit of a tongue tie, but somehow I managed to work through that quite easily.
When I am writing this post, she is 6 weeks old and is about 4100 grams, her birth weight was 2700, so I think it is fair to say that she is feeding rather well. She is normally quite restless early in the morning so I just put her next to me in our bed, let her nibble and enjoy that special intimate moment that noone else will ever have with her, I know every little eyelash on her, she is mine, well between 4-7 AM anyhow before my husband or the other 2 girls get to her.
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