At birth feeding may be delayed due to:
- Baby’s being born premature and having an immature digestive system, which requires time to develop enough to be able to tolerate full milk feeds
- Baby’s may be too sick to tolerate milk feeds and/ or need respiratory support to help with their breathing.
To ensure baby’s nutritional needs are fully met we administer intravenous fluids these will be one of the following:
- Dextrose solution
- Dextrose and electrolyte solution
- Parental Nutrition - a mixture of Carbohydrates, Protein, Fat and Vitamin
These fluids will be administered by an infusion pump via a tube placed into the baby’s vein and the nutritional fluid goes straight into the baby’s bloodstream.
Parental Nutrition is used for babies who may take a longer period of time to transfer to enteral feeds and will ensure baby’s get their full energy and nutritional requirements so to ensure they continue to grow, mature and gain strength until milk feeds can be commenced and fully established. Once milk feeds are commenced and tolerated the intravenous fluid volumes become less and the milk volumes increase until the baby no longer requires intravenous fluids and their nutritional needs are being fully met by their milk feeds.
