I will say quickly in my defense, before my busy day gets
going.................

Of course I say to the mom and baby "what a smart baby you are to prefer you
mommy" and obviously "breast is best" and "isnt it just so wonderful that
she is thriving so well on the breast" !

I never used bottles with my own children, but that doesnt mean that is the
only way, or the "right" way to feed the baby.
Of course I have explored with the parents other options, like dad taking
the baby to moms office when the baby is needing to feed, or syringe
feeding, or cup feeding.

THEY want the baby to take a bottle, thus I am helping them to try to be
able to do what works best for them all.  The baby did take a bottle at 2
weeks of age, but then they stopped because they didnt know it would be in
their best interest to keep one in her routine.  Because she did take a
bottle at one time, there is probably nothing intrinsically wrong with the
babies suck.

I am sorry I offended some by stating that maybe the baby had "something
wrong with it" because it gagged so easily on the bottle or even on the
breast if it fed in any position other than laying down.  Maybe that is the
"nurse" part of me, knowing physiologically what babies can do, versus the
LLL leader part of me, knowing what the baby "wants" to do.  In reality, I
think it was my way of washing my hands of this case, since the dad made me
so uncomfortable. I plan to review this over the phone with an OT, and then
get back with the mom.

And for the record, I, too, wasnt very comfortable with trying the nipple
shield on the breast, and probably only tried it for 1-2 minutes total.  The
thought behind that was that the baby loved the breast so much, would she
accept it with the artificial nipple on it?  She did not, so we quit.

Linda Hill RN, IBCLC
Austin TX

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