Dear all,

To those unbelieving health care professionals:  how many of them (docs &
nurses & neighbors & grandmas) tell the bf mom to start giving bottles ASAP
because they certainly don't want to have a baby that takes nothing but the
breast, do they?  If that isn't nipple confusion/preference, what is?  And,
have these nurses/docs/whatever never had a baby that would take, say, the
NUK pacifier and refuse all others?  Or the Evenflo teat and refuse the J & J
Health Flow?  Nipple confusion/preference here.

Give 'em something to which they can relate -- preferably "give 'em a bottle
so they won't refuse it later on" story, and perhaps they will see where you
are coming from r/t nipple confusion/preference.  My personal opinion is,
most babies aren't confused, they simply are little creatures of habit, and
LIKE/imprint on the first thing that is stuck in their mouths that give them
sustenance.  Particularly if mommy is tense and having difficulty getting the
baby to latch on to begin with, and then she/nurse gives a bottle, and
everyone feels relaxed & not tense.

Another type of nipple confusion/preference:  baby has been latching on just
fine and suddenly br becomes full & firm.  Baby doesn't like new feel/texture
-- won't bf.  Or, how about a baby that likes one side & not the other?
 Maybe we are using the wrong term -- instead of nipple confusion, let's use
nipple preference.  Perhaps they'll get the picture then.

And then again, perhaps they won't.

Jan Barger, feeling pessimistic about health care and health professionals in
general today.