NICU feeding schedule

They had my son on every 3 hour feeding schedule. lastnight they pulled his feeding tube. today the dr called me and said he wanted to tell me the change i my sons eating schedule. he said that he is no longer on a 3 hour feeding. he now can decide himself when he is hungry and how much he wants. the were saying that he needed to take 38 ml every feeding. now he can take as muchu or as little as he wants? this is kinda scary since hes only 4 pounds 8 oz. why are they doing this? have your LOs done this? the dr also said to me " I can not promise you but I can say in all my years I have done this.. seeing your son and where he is.. my guess is by this time next week he should have this wrapped up and ready to be out of here "

They want him to get used to having to wake himself up when he is hungry. If he is getting ready to go home soon, he will have to know how to do that. Alternately, if you feel like you want to keep him on that schedule...just wake him up every 3 hours and offer food. But it would probably at least be worth it to let him go a day or so on his own to see how he does himself. Congrats on hopefully going home soon!!!

Quoting I have a princess:" They had my son on every 3 hour feeding schedule. lastnight they pulled his feeding tube. today the dr ... [snip!] ... your son and where he is.. my guess is by this time next week he should have this wrapped up and ready to be out of here ""

They kept my LO on a 3 hour feeding schedule until she came home. Then she was kept on that (via her Dr's suggestion) until she hit 12lbs which was around 6 months old. The minimum we wanted I think was 52ml (it was 2 years ago so that is a guess). If she took less then that we had to try to get her to take that much. If we couldn't then we just has to watch carefully. However, we were to wake her up and feed her EVERY 3 hours until she hit 12lbs.

Yes they did that with my son when he went to the step down unit. They need to realize on their own that they are hungry and learn how to voice that and eat on his own. If he gets too under weight they will help him, but when babies are hungry you will know it.

no, LO was on 3 hour feedings until he got home and i started feeding on demand..and if he didnt drink most of his milk they went down on the mls for a day or 2.. every nicu/baby is different so maybe thats why some do and some dont

They kept my son on a 3 hout feed until he came home. They told us to wake him up every 3 hours to feed even at home though. He was supposed to take in 60ml each feeding as well. Once we got home, he pretty much would wake himself. Maybe once or twice we woke him up to feed. We did that for around 2 weeks and then just fed him whenever he would wake up. He stopped waking up exactly every 3 hours to feed around then too. It was more of every 4-5 hours. I think that is when we had to up his feedings because he was eating more too. Lol