<Frankly, with as many of us dealing with babies who are already bottle
feeding when we get them, I'm appalled at how little the average LC knows
about bottle teats and how they work.  I wish they had bottle teats and
pacifiers at the booths so LCs could mess with them.>
I agree with Barbara.
I would say that 60% of the babies born in my hospital do not latch in the
first few days. I have no explanation for this frightening
phenomenon....many were natural births, and had not received a bottle.   YOu
can only spoon-feed colostrum for maybe 2 days at the most, and if the baby
is still not ready or able to latch, then I recommend a bottle and very
slow-flow  teat which will help preserve the suck until the mom can get to
one of my colleagues after she is released from hospital on day 3.
I see pumps, bottles and teats as essential tools for those babies who are
not latching or sucking well, and by using them, we see almost 100% success
rates getting the babies back on the breast.
 Showing them at the ILCA conference in a breastfeeding context would be
educational and useful for professionals who are working with these
non-suckers.

Esther Grunis, IBCLC
Lis Maternity Hospital
Tel Aviv, Israel

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