Resources of the Week: Breastfeeding and Down Syndrome
Saturday October 31, 2009
There are a multitiude of reasons why breastmilk is better for a baby, and while a mother may have the best of intentions, babies don't always cooperate. Some infants learn to latch on easily, and others have a much more difficult time.
In particular, babies with Down syndrome often have a difficult time breastfeeding due to hypotonia or low muscle tone, a poor suckling reflex, and more placid and sleepy nature. If you intend to breastfeed your baby with Down syndrome, you may want to checkout the websites below and consider a consultation with a lactation specialist.
For us, nursing has been a wonderful experience. I really do believe that it has helped out our baby in many ways–less ear infections/ illnesses, better ability to use his mouth and tongue properly when eating, probably some fine motor skills and cognitive development too. It hasn’t always been easy. We were in the NICU for 2 weeks, and he was definitely bottle fed (as well as tube fed) while we were there, but I could tell that he really wanted to nurse also. The speech therapist gave me some tips to keep him awake and nursing longer, and we ended up using a ‘breast shield’ (I think that’s what its called) for months after he was born. It was also hard to be working, since after he was hooked on nursing he didn’t bottle feed that well. I feel like he didn’t grow as well at times because I wasn’t at home to nurse him myself all day. At this point, he’s almost 17 months, and we still nurse in the morning and night. He recently had swine flu and he wouldn’t eat-but he nursed almost non-stop. He also recovered from the flu pretty easily, and never coughed or sneezed, just had a fever and felt badly. Anyway, I know it isn’t always easy and may not work at all for some people, but I really encourage new moms to stick with it as long as possible.
My daughter with T21 breastfed for two and a half years. Her suck was strong from the start, but since she had been induced at 8 months it was difficult for me to get my milk down at first.
I see her with no ear infections and much better health than most T21 children, and can credit breastfeeding for that.