My preemie needs to move from bottle to breast. Help!

[Anonymous]

31 weeker here -- I found the biggest constraint to the switch was those doggone fast flow nipples they used in the NICU, and I had to argue every day to get them to use the slow flow ones. Nurses sometimes not patient enough to feed the baby using slower flow, which using fast flow only caused her to choke up and delay learning to bottle feed so she could be released from the NICU. Anyway, take a good hard look at how fast the milk is coming out of the bottle vs what you think it is like from your breast (mother's intuition). If the bottle is at all faster, your problems will continue. We had a "no binkie rule" for 30-45 min prior to each estimated feeding time to save up those mouth muscles. Baby uses different muscles with bottle vs breast, and breast is often more difficult, esp for the littlest ones. Also, wait until baby is *really* hungry...say maybe wait 5 minutes after she starts showing a few signs of hunger, but not too hungry that she gets immediately frustrated waiting for your milk to let-down. Then you really get an eager eater...this also helps prevent baby from turning into a lazy nurser. I've been there, and I feel your pain. Hang in there!

[Anonymous]

My baby was born at 37 weeks, and had no NICU stay, but didn't latch well from the start and got hooked on bottles in the hospital. It took her a full 8 weeks to "get it" with nursing. I feel your pain, OP- I did the same try to nurse a screaming baby, bottle feed, then pump routine for 8 long weeks.

What finally worked was the syringe/finger feeding a PP mentioned. Put the breastmilk in a syringe, and put it and the tip of your finger in the baby's mouth. After you feel her suck 5 times, give her a little squirt of milk. Then give her a little squirt after each suck. This simulates the flow from the breast and teaches her to suck to get the milk. It does take longer than giving a bottle, but within a couple of days she was nursing better, and within a week she was nursing full time. We recently weaned at 16 months!

Good luck, OP. Hang in there and she WILL get it. The first couple of months of hell were SO WORTH the next 14 months of happy nursing.