Cathy said:
"I've been able to help babies who were bottle fed for several months to 
learn to breastfeed, and it wasn't even hard in most cases. It's much 
harder to get babies who seem convinced that the breast does not work to 
try again."

I agree with Cathy.  I now believe it is a matter of trust.  This baby knows
from experience that he will get milk from the bottle and he trusts it.  He
doesn't trust that he will get fed at the breast, until we prove it to him.
For those babies who don't go easily to breast after a few bottles, I find
that if you can keep them on long enough to elicit MER, either through
repeated relatching or by syringe or SNS or some other supplemental route,
they will breastfeed happily.  They really just want to get fed and they
will adapt to whatever method you use to do that with (unless there is a
physical problem) and come to prefer it.  I think explaining that this is a
trust issue for baby puts it in language a mother can deal with, since they
often interpret baby's fussiness to be a rejection of them or the breast and
think they are "forcing" baby to do something he doesn't want to do.  

I also like the term "confusion" for the same reason someone else mentioned,
it implies innocence in the choice, whereas "preference" implies some
reasoned approach to the choice.  It's all semantics anyway.  Regardless of
what we call it or why we think it happens, *it* does happen.  Some babies
who are given bottles early on will not breastfeed as easily.  I tell
parents of such babies that their baby is a fast learner.  He has figured
out where milk comes from (he thinks) and he wants what he is used to.
That's where the part about trust comes in.  He has to learn to trust the
breast.  Then, when we do get the baby back to the breast successfully, I
tell parents that they are seeing their baby learn! They are usually very
proud! 


Marsha, who has just found out my daughter is expecting my first grandchild!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations
as all other earthly causes combined.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~John S. C. Abbot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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