While some infants may accept or return to the breast and others might agree to both nurse and bottle suck, many other infants do not comply with this behavior.    

Lactnet writers have written that the demonstrated ability to accept, return to the breast or alternate between breast and bottle is contingent on several factors, including the skill of the facilitating lactation specialist, the persistence of the mother and infant characteristics. 

The infant's world view plays an important role in the ability to switch from the perceived nurturer (the bottle) to the other, perhaps less giving mother (in the infant's view). 
For some infants this is an impossible task and for some mothers, it is impossible to contain an unwilling infant. We can not predict how mothers, infants and their support systems will react. Nor is possible to forecast the ability of the professional facilitator to sustain a stressed system. 

Most of us have seen the emotional pain that nursing families experience when an infant struggles to make sense of a confusing world. We know that nipple confusion, nipple preference or whatever one chooses to call it, is real. Hence, while alternative solutions are sometimes unavoidable, it seems that one should use great caution and understanding when using them. 
 
Keren Epstein-Gilboa MEd, BScN,RN,LCCE, IBCLC 
PhD (Candidate)
psychotherapist  

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