Dear Colleagues:

I am no-mail right now (had been since July to prepare for IBLCE exam....
I PASSED!!!  Now I am swamped with work) and need your thoughts for a 
family I am consulting with.  Can't find anything on this subject.  Please
e-mail me privately if you have any ideas for me on how to respond.  In 
his own words, I quote:  

"I am the father of a now 11 month old boy. We have no family to assist
us and do not want a "nanny", even if we could afford it. His mother
continues to breastfeed him.  My question may seem a bit odd or amusing
(it has to some female friends) but it has me  concerned.  When he was 8
months old, his mother had to go away for 2 weeks without him on a
work assignment.  It was a necessity for her career.  I cared for the
baby those two weeks..and found that weaning him with the formula was
not a job I would ever sign up for again.  I was trying 
everything...pacifiers (spit out with disgust)...he wouldn't eat from
the bottle until he was so famished that he had to.  Most of the time,
he was unconsolable. Then, one day as I held him in my arms as he 
screamed and kicked, rocking him and trying to get him to take the
bottle of formula, he turned his head and latched onto my bicep with a
suction force of a vacumn. He calmed down immediately...and I allowed
him to continue until he peacefully went to sleep.  The next 9 days, he
used my arm as his pacifier...(believe me, I understand now when she
would cry out in pain when the baby was nursing)...and it actually
worked to calm him down...and he started to take in formula and some
baby foods...when he got tired, he'd go for the arm...if you're not
rolling over laughing, I would appreciate some feedback on this. When
I take care of him now, he wants to use my arm as usual...and I am
afraid this is a little too weird...Am I overconcerned?"

Susan Z. Condon, IBCLC, CLE, CLC
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
Certified Lactation Educator/Counselor
LACTATION CONSULTING HOME SERVICES
1846 Church Street
San Francisco, CA  94131-2713

Home/FAX: 415-282-7816
E-mail: <[log in to unmask]>

See the Lactation Consultant heading in the "Ask the
Experts" column at www.BabyCenter.com