Most premature and low birth-weight babies do not have the strength to suck milk from a nipple or bottle, and their intestines may be too weak to absorb food. There are three alternative ways of feeding:
- Intravenous feeding is used for babies who are very ill or so premature that they cannot swallow or digest food for themselves. It may continue for weeks and subsequent feeding will be through a stomach tube.
- With nasogastric feeding, a tube is passed through the baby’s nose and into the stomach or intestine. Because the tube is very fine and soft, the baby hardly knows it’s there, so it’s a very comfortable way to feed.
- When your baby is older, a combination of breast or bottle and tube feeding will suffice; the baby feeds as much as he can from breast or bottle, and the feeding tube supplies the rest. Combination feeding can be used once the rooting and sucking reflexes are established and will continue until the baby is strong enough to feed from breast or bottle only.
Progress
The development of a premature baby can be slow and erratic. It is often a great shock to see just how tiny a premature baby is but he will have a great will to live.
For a premature baby every day can be an uphill battle. Periods of improvement may be followed by setbacks, and this constant uncertainty can make you and your partner feel anxious, moody, and restless. It is encouraging to know, however, that most babies born after 32 weeks will develop normally. Of those babies born at 27 weeks (three months early), six out of seven will survive.
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