Comments on: Breastfeeding and DW

By: geena

geena — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:46:40 +0000

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.

By: JaymesMom

JaymesMom — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:55:09 +0000

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!

By: ethansmom

ethansmom — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:56:29 +0000

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.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:34:13 +0000

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.