How to take care of Pre-Mature baby

Hi all,

I am really worried as recently my sister gave birth to a premature baby(8*5mths pregnancy).
She was kept in Incubater for 10days. Today she got discharged…
I await your suggestions regarding taking proper care of such babies which will help my sister for baby’s good n healthy growth…

Hi! I’m glad the baby’s home now. I think the best thing you could do for the little angel is make sure she gets BREAST-MILK. In this way, the baby gets all the nutrition and “protection” she needs.

Also, try to replicate the uterine environment as much as possible since she’s not supposed to be out of there yet. Avoid unnecessary noises, keep her warm always, don’t expose her to pets, and make sure the room is sanitized. Hope this helps!

Well the baby is brest-feeded, but still underweight, so i wanted to know how can we increase her weight, I mean what should a vegetarian mom include in her diet, that inturn helps the baby to gain weight?

The baby will simply gain weight from eating a lot-every 2-3 hours, even at night. Make sure she is feeding often-and from both breasts at each feeding.

Hi,

Glad the baby is doing better. I agree, she should get breast milk! The other thing that is helpful is to make sure the baby gets a lot of human contact and is held a lot. I agree that keeping the room clean is important, however be cautious about the cleaning products you use. Infants are very susceptable to toxins. A friend of mine’s baby developed Kawasaki’s disease and almost died. The doctors blamed the pine based cleaning supplies she was using.

An easy thing to overlook when you have a newborn is rest for the mom an exhausted Mom may not be able to produce enough milk. I know a very wise lactation consultant who advises moms whose babies are not gaining to take the baby to bed with her for three days. The baby can nurse as often as it wishes & the mom gets lots of rest. A mom’s breast should adjust to the amount of milk the baby needs in that time period.

Also, it is very important that the baby sucks long enough to get to the hindmilk. The fore milk is not nearly as rich in nutrients and calories as the hindmilk. If the baby tires before the breast is drained or is switched to the other breast too quickly it may not gain well. In general it is good to let the baby nurse from both breasts, but I can not stress enough how important it is that they are draining the hind milk at least from the first side.

Lastly, if she can find a good lactation consultant I would highly reccomend it. They can check to see that the baby is sucking correctly & offer valuable insight to any problems they are having. :mellow:

This has all been great advice! For even more advice please go and have a look at the La Leche Website. La Leche are the recognized authorities on all things Breastfeeding, there is a wealth of information and topics devoted to issues such as nursing a premature baby.

http://forums.lalecheleague.org

Good luck for your sister and well done to you for providing her with such good care. The road can be tough and many people will pressure her into putting the baby on formula. But breast really is best. :yes: :yes: :yes:

Thxs all for such a great advice one good news for all my friends is she is constantly gaining weight and on her last visit to a pediatric , she was remaked as absolutely normal baby with a good progress reoprt…

Thxs to all of you

I’m so happy to hear she is doing well! :smiley:

i feel for your sister. I gave birth at only 32weeks via emergency ceasarian section. My son was only 2.3kgs then.

for the first month, my baby would nurse every hour and sleep most of the time. now at almost 3months, his weight is almost 6kgs.

so i think lots of milk and rest will help :slight_smile:

Hello, everyone.
I had the same problem. My also had an emergency ceasarian section, but my daughter was comparatively big (almost 3 kgs). She even had 8-9 points according to Apgar score. That’s why they put us together right after I came to consciousness. Maybe because of general anesthesia or for some other reasons (some people say because of my age) but I didn’t have milk at all. Plus I worried so much about my child, I even cried though I was so happy. Hormones, you know. :slight_smile: At the hospital I gave my daughter milk formula for premature babies. She didn’t like it at all. I was afraid to use a bottle, because I wanted to breastfeed her. I tried to do my best and gave her breast very often. We lost 400 grams at the hospital. I was so frightened. When we got home, she also slept a lot and seemed to be not interested in food. Milk appeared only in a week after birth (by that time I calmed down a bit). I didn’t have much milk at first, but I drank tees for nursing mothers and they helped! I am still breastfeeding my child and she is a beauty. At one year she weighed 12 kilograms.