Toby says,

>But I have had the baby who once he has put his mouth
>around an bottle nipple will not go back. this can be very painful. I often
>wonder if sometimes this is an ambivalent mother and the baby picks up on
>this.

And I've often wondered if part of it isnt' the way the mother "feels" to the
baby when she bottle feeds -- she relaxes, and isn't working at it so hard,
so baby feels as though this must be the way to go.  The entire issue is far
more complex than any of us know about.  I would be very wary of giving
bottles to babies who can't latch on or have an abnormal suck.  A baby who is
latching on well (of course, probably doesn't need one), but would do better,
and probably have less problems with nipple preference.  Both my girls could
switch back & forth without difficulty; Timothy, bless his boy-type-genes,
would have NEVER gone to the breast if we had given bottles.....

Jan Barger