Hi Tara,

So I have told this story before, but not recently (I hope). One of my
first clients as an IBCLC back in the 80's was an Amish woman with
nipples like you describe. She was on her fourth child and had had
trouble breastfeeding all of them. She supplemented with a homemade
concoction until they eventually latched on, usually somewhere between
6 and 8 weeks of age. The only thing I could do was encourage her to
express or pump her milk and give it to the baby instead of the
molasses porridge that she had been using to supplement.

She was an amazing mom, very calm and accepting of her situation, but
wanting help if it was available. She had already lost two children to
cystic fibrosis and realized it was possible that this baby would also
be afflicted. I'm sure that she grieved greatly for her children, but
she also seemed to be able to leave it all in God's hands.

Really, in a case like this, you just have to wait for the baby to
grow into the nipple. Keep the milk supply going and use a lot of STS
to eventually get the baby onto the breast. The issue here is that she
may become too comfortable with EBM feeding and decide not to even try
to go back to breast. Encourage her to let baby have a try at the
breast every week or so and back off if it obviously is not time yet.
She can do a lot of cuddling while bottle-feeding the baby to retain
that feeling of not just feeding the baby. That may also give her an
incentive to go back to the breast to really get the ultimate
closeness that she probably was originally hoping for.

Sharon Knorr, IBCLC, NY, USA

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