Breast feeding in infants with Down''s syndrome

Fifty-nine mothers of infants with Down's syndrome were interviewed about methods of early feeding and the problems encountered. Antenatally, 29 mothers had wished to breast feed and 16 were successful. According to the mothers, 31 babies had no difficulty in establishing sucking, 4 were slow for less than 1 week, 8 took 1 week and 16 took longer than 1 week. Severe cardiac anomaly was associated with poor sucking ability. It was concluded that infants with Down's syndrome do not inevitably have initial feeding problems and can be breast fed successfully, but their mothers need to persevere and to be given hospital support and encouragement.