Feeding and Growing

Depending on the age of your baby, we will help you move towards full suck feeds.

• From about 34 weeks corrected (though it can be earlier), your baby will start to develop breath, suck, and swallow coordination. At this stage, and depending on your baby’s medical needs, we may start to offer your baby a suck feed and will slowly increase the feeds until your baby is breastfeeding up to 5 times per day or taking a bottle. Once your baby has been breastfeeding 5 times per day for 4 to 5 days, they will be ready to go to parent craft (see FAQ – parent craft for more information). If your baby is bottle feeding, once they have been taking all their feeds by bottle for 48 hours, they will also be ready for parent crafting.
• This process can sometimes seem slow, but it is important to remember that you and your baby are learning how to feed. Your baby is also learning how to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing at the same time while putting on weight.
• Every Monday and Thursday at 11am, the feeding team visits each baby who has started to feed either by breast or bottle. The team will chat to you about your baby’s feeds, assess how they are going and make any plans with you.
• When suck feeding is becoming established, it is a good idea to call your baby’s room in the morning before you come in, as sometimes the feed time will change in response to your baby’s cues.
• As your baby gets better, and if you are planning on breastfeeding, we will ask you to plan to spend a large part of the day doing breastfeeding. We will ask you to be in the nursery to do 4 to 5 breast feeds in a row for 4 to 5 days.  This is a very important part of the journey to ensuring your baby can feed by themselves.