In a little over 6 months in practice as a Pediatrician, I've found the need
to develop a new "speech" for moms [and dads] to circumvent all the
"not-so-helpful" influences of giving the baby a bottle of formula for
whatever the reason of the day is.

After I examine the baby with them and explain all the lumps, bumps and
other things on their baby and say that he looks well, I say "Baby's job for
the next 3 days is to nurse as much as he can, to tell your breasts how much
milk to make and that there is a hungry, growing baby out here. [I talk
about feeding intervals] He's to practice latching and sucking and
swallowing so that he's ready to do it when your milk "comes in" in quantity
which will probably be around 3-4 days. Right now he's getting your
colostrum, which is everything he needs to help him poop and pee and keep
his blood sugar up."

"Mom's job for the next 3 days is to keep baby with her as much as possible
and get to know him. Snuggle with him, cuddle him. Learn his feeding cues
[demonstrating what they are] - crying is a late sign of hunger. Teach him
that you'll feed him when he signals. Teach him how to latch-on properly
[demonstrate latch and unlatch technique] and unlatch him if his latch
doesn't seem right."

and taken from a wonderful lactnet post - not original
"Dad or Grandma, your job is to teach baby that love and comfort aren't
necessarily associated with food."

This covers the biggest roadblocks that I run into regularly:
"He needs a bottle of formula because of: pooping, peeing, blood glucose,
your milk's not in, etc...."
"Put him in the nursery overnight"
"Don't hold the baby - you'll spoil him"
"He wants to nurse all the time"  [That's his job for the first 3 days]
"I don't think I can breastfeed if it's going to be this much all the time"
[we're just dealing with 3 days here]
"Wait til he cries to feed him"
"Dad, Grandma or whoever wants to give him a bottle"

Gail Hertz, MD, IBCLC  - "Working to battle the reason of the day"

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