Infant Illness

Infant Illness: My story.

I came home with a healthy baby girl. We had some breastfeeding challenges because she had a small mouth. She was born at 36 weeks and was not quite "ripe" a month early. She got a runny nose when she was 5 weeks old. It kept running and running, so much that I took her to an urgent care, looked serious to me. But who was I? Just her mommy who happened to be a pediatric nurse with ER experience. The doctor told me she was fine and sent us home. 12 hours later I was dialing 911 because she was blue and not breathing. Within a 24 hour window, I went from having a healthy newborn to being at the Childens ICU. I will never forget the moment she turned blue, my heart still sinks thinking about it. I forgot everything I knew as a nurse and I simply cried out to the Lord to save her. She was very ill, they had to stick her 8 times to get an IV and we had to suction her airway every 5-10 minutes for 3 days to keep her airway open. She was on the verge of being intubated in her lungs several times. This photo is her on day 3 of the ordeal. She was too ill to for any of us to think of taking photos on the first 2 days.

When she was finally well enough to eat again on day 4 - we hit a roadblock. Apparently we overstimulated the nerve responsible for sucking during our suctioning of her airway. She had forgotten how to or was unable to suck properly. Again, I went to the Lord and prayed. I patiently nursed her squeezing milk into her mouth while she barely suckled for days and days. I used a syringe to supplement at times.

This is a photo of her on day 5 of hospitalization. You can see her color is better from the above photo. I was letting her suckle. We got to go home later that day!

And I did finger feedings. Thank God I was a lactation consultant, no one from the hospital ever offered to help. I fed her every hour for about a week. 24 hours = 24 feedings. But I did not mind. I was grateful she was alive. She slept on my chest so I could feel her breathing. It took us about 2 weeks to regain a good latch and breastfeeding rhythm. Then she nursed until she was 2 years old!

It was not easy but I KNEW breastmilk would help her heal. She is a healthy stubborn 5 year old now. The only one in our house without allergies.

There is not enough room for me to list the possible reasons why your child could be hospitalized or sick. The purpose of this page is to say that there may be a situation, like mine, that you do NOT plan for- that interupts breastfeeding. But if you stay committed and find support GOOD SUPPORT, you can make breastfeeding work. Notice I say you can MAKE it work. Stick with it, dont give up.

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