Feeding guide (for children with prediabetes)
Feeding your baby is an honor, while providing your child with the nutrition needed to improve physical and mental development. Feeding is also an opportunity to show your love while communicating and engaging with your baby. It is reassuring and proud to be a parent when your child gains a steady and satisfactory weight gain and thrives. For a child with prematurity, however, it can be disappointing that despite your best efforts, you may not be able to achieve the same weight gain as a child of the same age.
How to feed your child
For children with congenital heart disease, it is important to adjust your feeding method and timing, whether breastfeeding or artificial feeding. Some children with congenital heart disease may require additional supplemental breast milk or formula, or even feeding through a transnasal gastric tube, for example.
More frequent feedings and feeding on demand are more beneficial for children with prematurity. These children can easily become tired during feedings, resulting in not enough milk at one time, so more mundane feedings are more beneficial. Initially you may need to feed every 2 hours and wake your child several times a night for feedings until he or she can handle more milk. Mixed feeding may be more appropriate for some affected children.
Breastfeeding
If your child is found to have preexisting heart disease before or at birth, you may not have the opportunity to care for your child after delivery. This is when you need to start applying a breast pump to your breast within 12-24 hours of your child’s birth to maintain your breast milk supply. For the first week, you should pump every 2-3 hours and when your breast milk supply is good, you can pump 4-5 times a day. Of course you can also consider renting an electric breast pump for home use. If your child needs surgery after breastfeeding has been established, you can apply a breast pump to keep your breast milk supply up when your child is not around.
The procedure of breastfeeding is less than manual feeding, the coordination of sucking, swallowing and breathing is easier for infants and children who are breastfed can get more oxygen than those who are artificially fed. In general, in children with prediabetes, breastfed children are more likely to gain satisfactory weight than artificially fed ones.
If you feed 8-12 times a day, your child can get enough milk and you can hear your child swallowing with a big gulp when the child’s mouth is well connected to the nipple. Peeing 6-8 times a day and a satisfactory weight suggests that your child has enough milk.
If you have questions and needs about breast pumps or breastfeeding, you can consult a lactation specialist. Before you leave the hospital, the lactation specialist will evaluate your breastfeeding to make sure it is going well.
Artificial feeding may offer more flexible changes than breastfeeding, especially for children who are treated in the hospital right after birth. Artificial feeding can be done by dad or other family members, making feeding more flexible.
Every child is different, so every child is fed differently. There is no need to compare the amount of milk your child eats with other children. The goal of feeding a child with prematurity is to obtain a satisfactory weight. Most normal children gain about 1/2 to 1 ounce of weight per day, while children with prediabetes tend to be below this value.
The common formula milk ingredients on the market are as similar to breast milk as possible, and you and your child’s caregiver decide which one is best for your child. There are also many types of bottles and pacifiers to choose from. Some children with pre-eclampsia have difficulty sucking on a regular pacifier, so you will need to choose a pacifier that is soft and has a larger opening so that the milk can be sucked more easily. Pacifiers with small holes can make it difficult for your child to suck and can cause vomiting by swallowing air. You can use a thicker needle to pass through the small hole in the pacifier to expand the opening area. Pacifiers need to be sterilized by boiling for 5 minutes before use and should be used only after they have cooled completely.
A medical professional, clinical nurse specialist, or feeding team member can assess your child’s feeding habits and recommend a special feeding schedule and pacifier.
Other feeding options: nasal feeding
Some children with prematurity do not get enough calories through breastfeeding or artificial feeding alone. These children may need to receive additional feedings through a gastric tube that goes through the nasal cavity all the way to the stomach, where formula or breast milk can be delivered through the tube directly into the stomach. This allows for feeding with little energy consumption and is the child’s weight gain. This type of feeding also includes a duodenal tube, jejunal tube, etc. This type of feeding involves the surgical placement of a tube into the stomach and jejunum. You and your child’s health team will determine the best feeding method and feeding schedule for your child.
Other fluids
Avoid feeding your child water because it has no calories. You can feed juice after your child is four months old, but not as a substitute for formula. Formula and breast milk are still the best choices to meet your child’s caloric needs when solids and juices are just starting. This is because milk has a higher calorie count than juice and solid foods.
Solid food additions
Your doctor will help you decide when to add solids, usually starting when your child is 6 months old. Cereals with iron are usually added first, followed by fruits and vegetables, and finally meat. Solid foods should be spoon fed. Adding solid foods to milk thickens the milk and makes it more difficult for your child to suckle.