I have seen this many times. Mom complains of baby "gumming" or biting
breast - it is always a baby who uses a paci and/or bottle. One example
recently; mom of twins now 4 months old. Baby A has always been fussy at
breast, was forehead presentation, stalled at 9.5cm, c-section. at 3 weeks,
mom was frustrated with his fussy (very disorganized sucking) behavior and
gave baby a bottle of formula (from the discharge gift bag!!!) and also
began using pacifier. Baby A then began "biting down" on nipple. At 3.5
months postpartum, Baby B began using a bottle due to mother's return to
work and guess what? Baby B now also bites mom, and never has before. My
theory is that the shape of an artificial teat - peanut shaped with the
divet where the gums go - makes baby close gums on it. In order to keep
pacifier from falling out of mouth between sucks, baby must keep gums closer
together, even biting down at times. With bottle teat, baby must gum down a
bit to control flow.

It hit me 2 nights ago when I was trying to get my 7 month old to use a
sippy cup (long story) and she kept coming at the cup spout with a wide open
mouth and with her tongue down and out, as if she were waiting for me to
stick a tongue depressor in there. At that point I immediately decided
against the sippy cup since what she was doing was ::right:: and what I
wanted her to do with the cup was ::wrong::

I feel very stongly that "getting baby to take a bottle" just for the sake
of it, or for convenience is playing with fire. Using a bottle, even once,
is not something to be toyed with. Bottles are lifesavers in emergencies
(and that is why we had 2 stashed in a box under the sink - in case
something happened to me) but mustn't be used just for the sake of it. Pam
England's otherwise fine book Birthing From Within contains very unfortunate
information on this and is why I rarely recommend the book. In my
experience, (limited compared to many here on LN, but still significant at
4.5 years) it is the RARE baby who truly goes from breast to bottle and back
with no problems. More often I see problems after even 1 bottle.

Michelle DePesa
CLC, Peer Volunteer

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