Supplementary suckling technique with expressed breast milk can increase the belief in breastfeeding

In Tanzania in 2015 more than 100,000 Severe Acute Malnourished (SAM) cases were estimated, with
high risk of dying. SAM infants under‐6 months (U‐6 mo) need special care and should always be treated
as inpatient. If it is possible to restore Exclusive Breast Feeding (EBF), therapeutic feeds can be best
delivered by the Supplementary Suckling Technique (SST). A male infant, born at term with a body weight
(BW) of 3100 g, was admitted in hospital at 6 weeks of age with a BW of 1550 g. The child was diagnosed
as marasmatic SAM. He was started on therapeutic milk administered by SST. Mother was instructed in
proper SST use and counseled in order to re‐establish effective EBF. As weight gain was maintained, SST
was stopped and the child was put on EBF, but BW started to decrease again. SST was then applied using
Expressed Breast Milk (EBM), gradually stepped down and stopped. Since BW started to decrease again it
emerged that the mother decided by herself to start again to administer EBM by SST but in insuficient
quantity. She was invited to breastfeed frequently under supervision, creating a better awareness of
breastfeeding practices. Since the child showed correct weight gain on EBF he was discharged, with a BW
of 2420 g. According to our experience SST with EBM could be useful in developing countries to increase
awareness and belief on successful breast feeding.