I recently worked with (and ultimately included in an article I wrote) a
mother whose baby was born prematurely and given bottles and a pacifier in
the hospital before she nursed him. However, he seemed to switch over to
breastfeeding well. She took him home at 4 weeks of age and nursed him
exclusively for the next four months (no bottles, some pacifier use, good
weight gain).

Baby was then five months. Her husband wanted to go out without the baby, so
she left him for Friday evening with a sitter and bottles of expressed milk.
Baby took two bottles and slept all night. The next morning, she found it
very difficult to get him on the breast, and by Sunday her nipples were very
sore. They improved gradually and things went back to normal. However, after
she and her husband left him again the following Friday, they experienced
the same problem - difficulty with latching on Saturday, gradual
improvement. This got worse over time, and the baby would be so miserable
about feeding on Saturday that they started giving him bottles then as well.
They were not willing to give up their Friday night dates and the sitter
wasn't willing to use a cup or other feeding method (baby loves the bottle,
she said, and it comforts him). The bottles were gradually increased and
baby was weaned by 9 months.

This mother had been told that her baby was well past the age where nipple
confusion might be a problem. I wondered if the early exposure to bottles in
the hospital had set things up so this happened, or if this was just an
unusual baby.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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