Test weighing babies <35 weeks during breast feeding

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I am an NICU nurse looking at the benefits of test weighing (TW). The accuracy of TW had been debated on so many times. The unit I am in still uses TW to wean babies from gavage feeding to full demand feed on the breast. I need to know if this is still a current practice. If it is not please share your experience in how weaning from gavage to breast feeding is done.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

In my (rather rusty) experience, test weighing was more anxiety-producing than anything else. The moms would be so tense while the baby was feeding just praying that the babe had taken "enough". I think a more accurate method to determine the adequacy of breast feeding efforts would be daily weights, just as all babies already get. If the baby gains a little weight each day then they're getting "enough" and as time goes on they'll get "more".

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Specializes in Pediatrics, home care.

We are slowly phasing the practice out.( you always have some MDs who want it) It is anxiety producing for mom and disruptive for baby as they have to get all cold and uncomfortable to be reweighed again after feeding. We are going by lact cues i.e. latch, suck, time and emptying to gauge how much if any to gavage. Remember you can alway do nonutritive suck with a gavage if the pt is latching poorly or fatigued which is comforting to all. If you really need to know you can always suck it back out the NG. We have a feeding advancement protocol we use and I could always forward it to you if you are interested.

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Hi thanks for the feedback. I would really appreciate if you could share the feeding advancement protocol.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

We haven't done it in years. We don't even aspirate from the belly anymore. We let them nurse for 10-15 minutes twice a day to start, and advance them based on if they are gaining weight each day. Some kids we will still supplement 1/2 the feeding if mom says they didn't do well.

I don't think there is an exact science LOL

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Out of curiousity...has any NICU looked at the length of time to full breast feeding with TW versus without TW? I am still trying to convince myself and the unit about TW, whether it has any impact on shortening the time to full breast feeding and ultimate discharge from NICU.

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Thanks for the post. Do you think TW makes any difference in the time it takes to full demand feeding? Was there any comparative studies done in your NICU? I was thinking of conducting a study to look if TW has any impact on length of time to demand breast feeding.

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