Anyone want to join me going out on this thin little limb?

When a mother has a baby, she wants feedings to be a happy, close time.  If
she planned on nursing, and it isn't working, she still wants to snuggle
and nurture her baby while she feeds it.  Yes, you can cup and cuddle, but
it's not a culturally accepted method, it requires considerable attention,
and it's messy.  Same with tubes, syringes, and droppers, except that
they're less messy.  She's already declared herself to be a weirdo by
wanting to nurse;  moving into still more exotic feeding methods can only
be additionally stressful.

We've already discovered that nipple shields are not an agent of the devil.
Could it be true for bottles too?  Perhaps most of the problem is simply
in the way the bottle is used.  If a mother tickles with the teat, *waits*
for a good gape, then puts the bottle *all the way in* so the baby's lips
flange on the wide part, she's done a fair approximation of a breastfeeding
latch-on.

But then the milk gets ahead of the baby, and the baby has to protect his
airway.  Ah, but he doesn't have to if she rocks baby and bottle upright
after every 10 or so sucks, to drain the milk from the teat and give the
baby a breather.

I've seen babies who weren't accepting the breast at all go right for it if
a "sucking burst" on a bottle is interrupted and the breast is offered
while the baby is still sucking away with a troughed and eager tongue.
I've seen others whose acceptance of the breast kept improving as this
technique was repeated and repeated... and on the 6th or 8th try they
latched on and nursed.

Let's say a bottle does delay good breastfeeding for a few days longer than
finger-feeding would.  Which would most mothers prefer:  a few more days
with a bottle, or a few fewer days with tube and syringe?  Is it perhaps a
question we should be asking them?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find ways to use nipple shields and
bottles as our primary tools, and save the "weird" (from a mother's
perspective) feeding methods for special cases!

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY  USA