Karleen, has this mom seen ABRW?  I would be happy to correspond with her,
directly, if you would like to give her my e-mail address.  I know a little
bit about arthrogryposis, because I had a niece (by marriage) who was born
with it.  Kim was born in 1980, before I had any experience with
breastfeeding, but I do remember a little bit about what her mother went
through trying to nurse her.  They were also told that she was not capable
of suckling.  Her mother pumped and fed with premie nipples, as she was
instructed.  This went OK for a few days, then Kim failed to drain much milk
from the bottle and started getting dehydrated.  Fortunately, her parents
already had almost three years of experience with breastfeeding, with Kim's
older sister and brother.  Although the doctor thought that they needed to
make larger holes in the premie nipples, Kim's father watched her sucking
and could see that the premie nipple was collapsing when she sucked.  They
decided to try her directly at the breast, and she nursed herself to sleep,
and started peeing again.  She continued to breastfeed for about 21 months
and her health was excellent, despite the specific challenges of the
arthrogryposis.

It seems to me that there are alot of cases where mothers are told that
their babies are incapable of breastfeeding, or sucking well enough to use
anything but a premie nipple, without even really giving them a chance to
see if they can suck properly. Julia was on premie nipples when I got her,
at six months, and I was told that she "had to" have them, because she was
too weak to suck well.  I found that she actually had a very strong suck and
the premie nipples were part of her problem, too.

Anyway, if this adopted baby has the extensive surgeries and other
treatments in store for her that Kim had, she would have alot more to gain
from breastfeeding, emotionally and physically, than most kids do.

Aloha,
Darillyn

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