I have seen many similar cases where mothers are trying to get their babies
to the breast, either where the baby is adopted beyond the newborn period or
where breastfeeding has been interrupted or never gotten established.
Sometimes, the advice is to feed the baby with a spoon or syringe, at least,
but to refuse to give the baby a bottle or pacifier, with the assumption
being that he will eventually become so desperate to suck that he will take
the breast. There may be some cases where letting a baby's sucking need go
unfulfilled for a short time will help encourage a baby to take the breast.
However, there are other cases where it just makes matters worse. We have
seen many cases where a baby who has had a negative experience with the
breast eventually accepts it, but it usually requires a great deal more
patience and care to overcome such a thing, than it does in a case where
negative experiences are avoided.
The basic principle in getting older babies, who are taking bottles, to take
the breast is to carefully and gradually alter the baby's experience of
bottlefeeding to that of breastfeeding, being sensitive and considerate of
the baby's feelings, in the process. Trying to get a reluctant breastfed
baby to take a bottle is not something I am very experienced with, but I am
sure that the same principle applies. In fact, one of the things that
inspired me with getting Julia nursing, in 1991, was a story Jimmie Avery
told me. The mother had to be away for a couple few days, in order to
finish work on a Ph.D (if I remember right). Baby refused a bottle and
screamed, for an extended period, until Dad decided to take his shirt off
and stick the bottle under his arm. This made the experience of feeding
with the bottle familiar enough that the baby could accept it.
Back to Julia, I though about how she would pretty much freak out whenever I
tried to get her face into a position where latching on to my breast was
physically possible. After a few weeks of trial and error, I got the idea
of threading a nursing supplementer tube through a bottle nipple, so that
when she sucked, she would get the supplement from the bottle nipple. This
way, she would feel like she was sucking on a nipple attached to a bottle,
but there would be no bottle in the way. Once she was accepting that setup,
I could turn her into a position where gradually accepting the breast was
possible. It may work to try to do the reverse of this. I don't know of
anyone actually trying it. However, I think the overall principle is to
vary the baby's experience, gradually, would definitely apply. I would
encourage the parents to be creative and not worry about whether anyone
else thinks it is silly!
Aloha,
Darillyn
P.S.
The story of the baby who had not eaten in 3 days, after doc told mom not to
nurse, reminds me of an experience my late MIL shared with me. Her
daughter, born in 1958, refused to take anything other than the breast until
she was 13 months old. When my MIL took her to a baby clinic, at ten months
old, weighing 25 pounds, the physician and nurses, upon hearing that the
baby was only getting breast milk, chastised her severely. They told her
not to let her daughter have the breast unless she would eat some solid food
first, assuring that "once she gets hungry enough, she'll eat!". Well,
after about 36 hours of baby screaming and refusing to take anything else,
and mom crying, she finally let her have the breast. Fortunately, she then
went to a different doctor who said that the baby was perfectly healthy and
she should just go right ahead and nurse her!
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