Top tips for bringing home a premature baby

Hannah Deacon - 7 Apr 17

I once read an advice book on the care of premature babies, and pretty much the only thing that has stuck with me is the suggestion that you might want to “wash your cat”. I’m sorry, what? I’ll let you have a go if you want, but I’m quite keen on keeping my eyeballs in my head.

So, instead of battling your cat into the bath, here’s my top tips (buys) for bringing home your premature baby. Or, in fact, any baby at all.

1. Breast pump. I came home from hospital with a 35 week gestation baby that would not breast feed, believing that I would continue to feed her with expressed milk up until the same age that you would with breast milk. This is a pretty mental notion, once you try and put it into practice, and I believe that anyone that wants to try this will at least need to substitute with some formula. HOWEVER, if you do want to express, I would totally recommend renting a hospital strength breast pump. I did not do this. I bought a Tommee Tippee hand expresser, and quickly realizing this would not work long term, invested in an electric one, which wasn’t up to much either. Stick with Medela or Calypso (which I’m pretty sure will be what your hospital provide in house and/or rent out).
2. If you do succumb to the inevitable (…and obviously evil) formula milk, definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY invest in a Tommee Tippee bottle-maker-upper machine. I thought “oh, I don’t want one of those, how difficult can it be to just make up the feed with the kettle?”, and in fairness, it’s not difficult with the kettle, it’s just more of a ball ache. The Perfect Prep machine (as it’s more formally known) really comes into its own in the middle of the night when you’ve got a screaming, starving, knackered newborn on your hands.
3. This isn’t really a point but I just wanted to say at this point, this is most definitely not an #ad for Tommee Tippee, see point 1, and point 4…
4. Absolutely DO NOT BUY a bottle warmer, what is the actual point of these? Just put a cold bottle in a jug of warm water out of the kettle for Christ’s sake!
5. A video monitor. These are an absolute life saver once you’ve moved your baba into their own room, or even if they’ve fallen asleep in their Moses basket and you want to leave them in a different room. They’re especially good for checking whether you actually need to go in to see baby, or if they’re just having a funny turn and will self soothe themselves fairly shortly. Also good for checking if they’re still breathing, bringing us to…
6. I wouldn’t recommend a sleep apnoea mat. Ours came together with the video monitor, but if I’m being honest, I’ve never used it. The NICU staff advised us not to, and I’ve never felt the need anyway. Having said that, we never had any respiratory issues to contend with, and if your baby has had lung problems from birth, I imagine this would be a very different scenario. As I said, these are just my personal recommendations, but everybody will have their own experiences and opinions.
7. A Bumbo. I came quite late to this one, with my little one only a few weeks off sitting up (fingers crossed, although I have been saying that for about 3 months!). I bought mine off Ebay and there are a load of decent second hand ones hanging about. Basically, it’s a pre-highchair, which is moulded to your baby’s shape so they are able to sit up to eat and play without having to have the same back strength that would be required by your average highchair.
8. Back to Tommee Tippee… I have to say I also love the steam steriliser we have from them. It’s great not to always use chemicals (which I have nothing against as we had to use them in both hospital NICUs we stayed in, it’s just nice to have options). Side note on this however; it is super bulky. If you’re a bit tight for space, you are probably better just to keep a bowl of Milton in the sink and refresh it every 24 hours.
9. Bottles (for expressed milk or formula). We were advised by our NICU not to use Tommee Tippee bottles as apparently they’re more difficult for the tiny babies to use, but given that the NHS generally won’t discharge you until your baby is up to 4lb, I don’t really see this as a massive issue. They are great quality and our baba has never had a problem with them – TT themselves advertise them as being closer in shape to your actual breast so for people doing a bit of both this might be an advantage also (?). Alternatively, our NICU recommended the cheap rubber teats (and bottles to fit) that you can buy at Wilkos etc. although, in my experience, you can’t steam sterilise these, it has to be Milton.
10. Finally, and in my opinion, most importantly: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WASH YOUR CAT.

Just to note that we were extremely fortunate with the health of our baby, born at 30 weeks in July 2016. I don’t wish to make light of the issues faced by the parents of premature babies, just to offer some light-hearted but genuine advice on products that I found useful in our transfer back to life at home

Hannah Deacon

Hannah Deacon is mum to one Rainbow Baby, Isla, and is currently a stay at home mum. Lover of food, clothes and the occasional glass of vino, you can also check out her Instagram if you're interested.

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