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A copy of the current financial statement of the Dandy-Walker Alliance, Inc. is available by writing to: Dandy-Walker Alliance, Inc. 10325 Kensington Pkwy Suite 384 Kensington, MD 20895 or by calling 1-877-Dandy-Walker. Documents and information submitted under the Maryland Solicitations Act are also available, for the cost of postage and copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis MD 21401, 410-974-5534.
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Breastfeeding and DW

Hi,
does anyone have experience of breastfeeding a DW baby, I am 30 wks
pregnant with our daughter, Louise, who has had the diagnosis confirmed
with fetal mri. She also has tricuspid atresia which means the
tricuspid valve in her heart is missing. The cardiologist is really
positive and optimistic but our OB said the baby
will probably not be able to feed. I’d love to hear anyone’s story as
feeding her myself is important to me. Is the OB just being cautious?
Thanks Jennifer

January 18th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: General

4 comments to Breastfeeding and DW

  • Eric
    January 18th, 2010 at 10:34 pm

    My wife gave breast milk to our son Ryan. He wouldn’t take a bottle for a while so she was pumping and while Ryan was still learning to suckle they would give it to him. My wife’s name is Andrea and her e-mail is colean1324@hotmail.com if you want to ask her anything.

  • ethansmom
    January 19th, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    My son Ethan was born with DW. I tried to breastfeed him but he was born with a small chin and latching was an issue. He drank the breastmilk fine from a bottle once we found a nipple that worked for him. I am not sure if the heart isuue would cause feeding problems though. The Dr.’s told me Ethan ability to suck and eat well would all depend on him. I would try to breastfeed and see how she thrives. My son is now almost 3 months old and is doing very well and eating very well! He is such a joy! Good luck to you.

  • JaymesMom
    February 3rd, 2010 at 10:55 pm

    My daughter was born 5 weeks premature with hydrocephalus and DW. Everyone told me she would have trouble breastfeeding. I was insistent on at least trying, as I nursed my other two kids as well. She latched on the 2nd day after she was born but wouldn’t suckle for long (a minute or two). I pumped every 2 hours even if it was just a small drop of colostrum that I collected. The NICU saved every drop. Once my milk came in, she was still in the NICU. I continued to pump every couple hours to keep up a good supply and worked on getting her to latch on every few hours as well. When I would go home at night, I insisted that she be tube fed with my breast milk (no formula and no bottle) and I would pump every four hours at night. She had a vp shunt inserted on day 9. We spent another week in the hospital after that and worked on feeding issues. She still didn’t have a problem latching on but just didn’t feed for very long (maybe 5 or 6 minutes at the most). Once we came home though, things got better and she nursed more often and for longer periods of time. I would make sure you speak to the lactation consultant at the hospital and make your wishes known that you want to try and make it work. It’s hard work especially those first few weeks when you’re so sleep deprived, but it gets better. We spent a total of about 7 weeks in the hospital during her first year of life and breastfeeding sure made it easier. Jayme is 27 months now and I just weaned her about 5 weeks ago!

  • geena
    March 1st, 2010 at 2:46 am

    My daughter was diagnosed with DW at 23 weeks and was born five weeks prematurely weighing in at 4.2 lbs. Her diagnosis was confirmed the day she was born. I nursed her for 19 months. She would have nursed longer, but I weaned her because I got pregnant. She initially had a problem latching on in the hospital, but we found that it was because she was so tiny. It was a learning curve for us both. While we did give her formula at times, she preferred nursing and never had a problem.

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