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Ask Aunty Lactivist – Urgent – low glucose, told to top up with formulaAunty Lactivist is all of us, so if you can help at all with advice or encouragement or opinion please comment below. Dear Aunty Lactivist My very large baby was born yesterday. She’s 11lbs, 9 1/2 oz! Her blood glucose levels are low and they’re urging me to top-up with formula. (They were good this morning, but only 2.4 just now – the options seem to be formula or hospital!)What are your thoughts? L 11 comments to Ask Aunty Lactivist – Urgent – low glucose, told to top up with formulaLeave a Reply |
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Any Old Cow – Shopping Bag 
Mummy Milk Rocks – Shopping Bag 
Care Instructions – Shopping Bag 
http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:hypoglycaemia-of-the-newborn-low-blood-sugar&catid=5:information&Itemid=17
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where are you? do you knopw any bf mums near by who can donate milk? unfortunately unless you can provide enough milk to bring you babys blood sugar up then formula is needed. that said i cant remember the safe level for a baby so cant tell you how far (if at all) your babys blood sugar is.
if u can express as much as possile and give this to your baby, and also try and track down some breast milk from other sources, even ask the hospital if there is donor milk available. if your hospital has none available ask that somke be couriered to you from the nearest milk bank, no matter what time of day or night it is this IS a possibility
hth
x
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This is a tricky one, you have to go with what you feel is best. Personally I would say yes, you need to make sure she is getting plenty of milk, but I wouldn’t be giving formula if it were my baby.
I’d be more concerned if it dropped below 2. But I would prefer the option of a dextrose drip to formula! Clearly you can see how I feel about formula.
I would suggest expressing as much you can so you can give her extra via a cup or spoon to keep her sugars up. Particularly as I suppose she is quite sleepy? Are you diabetic or could this be a missed gestational diabetes?
Most important, keep her warm, and fed regularly. Remember the sugars (carbohydrate) in your milk is PERFECT for your baby.
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oh also if u have gestational diabeties this makes it a bit more urgent as baby will b temporairly diabetic too x
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Amanda that is a great link – I’ve copied a bit out here – Treating low blood sugar
If there is a concern about the baby’s blood sugar dropping too rapidly or being too low and good breastfeeding doesn’t seem to be correcting the problem, the baby should get an intravenous infusion of glucose rather than formula. Babies often spit up formula in the first few days because they get so much. If there is a real concern, taking formula by mouth does not guarantee the blood sugar will be raised.
Every postpartum unit should have banked breastmilk available on site. Banked breastmilk is preferable to formula as a supplement whenever the supplement is truly necessary. Even if the baby needs treatment for low blood sugar, there is rarely a reason for the baby not to breastfeed as well. A baby can be at the breast even if he has an intravenous. A baby can get supplements (preferably pre-expressed colostrum or banked breastmilk) even while being breastfed.
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Did u have gest diabetes? It seems to be standard to top up with babes of gest diabetes mums.
Breastmilks digested faster so his bs will be lower than ff baby. Feed him as much as u can. Get them to test 30m after a feed and see what
His glucose levels are. And then an hour later
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I have just had this update from the mum:
“I am normally pretty low on colostrum from about 24 hours after birth anyway – my babies tend to drain it and it seems to take a bit to recover, so expressing was pretty much out o…f the question – there wasn’t any extra!
Anyway, what I finally did was to make some homemade formula per the advice of the Weston A Price Foundation website (I’m already very familiar with their stuff and would trust them more than a formula company!) which mostly consisted of dairy items and fats that I already had around. This gave her the necessary boost to give a better blood reading.
Another friend of mine had previously been advised a small dab of brown sugar (as unrefined as possible) on the tongue every four hours just to give that tiny boost. I did that and immediately, she had the best feed she’d had for hours!
I think that between these two solutions, we have something to tide us over until my milk comes in (probably tomorrow).
I’ve bought some formula, but mostly to keep up appearances as I’m tired of trying to fight everyone all the time… I have no intention of using it – especially as every brand seems to have soy in it (one of my children and myself are allergic to soy!)”
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i had the same with my daughter after she was born. i had gestational diabetes and they wanted to top her up with formula as her blood sugar dropped every time i fed her, i tried to perservere feeding her but she ended up being tube fed a high calorie feed. i then successfully breastfed her for 11 months after. do what you think is best for baby. if she needs formula try giving through a syringe or from a small cup to avoid the attatchment to a bottle. hope every thing turns out ok.
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Skin to skin care helps stabilize blood sugar.
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I agree with whoever said its a personal decision. I, personally, wouldn’t do it and didn’t do it – my baby was 10lbs 9oz. I’d stay in the hospital a little longer if need be. And I second the skin to skin too. Good luck either way
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This happened to me, my baby’s blood sugar was extremely low due to my gestational diabetes and she did have formula, (and I am now still breastfeeding her at 20 months) but the one thing I will say (and I speak from experience with an my older child) DO NOT LET HER ANYWHERE NEAR A BOTTLE!! Tube, cup, spoon, syringe…anything but a bottle! You might have to stay in hospital a bit longer but it is worth it!
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