Jenny,

How long has your friend been trying to introduce cup, bottle, syringe and
finger feeding?  Sometimes, it can take a few weeks before a baby willingly
accepts something other than the breast.  It sounds like your friend's
schedule is such that breastfeeding can work, even if the baby eats very
little during her work hours.  I think the best thing that you can do is to
encourage her to continue trying to feed the baby EBM while she is at work
and to continue breastfeeding when she is home.  What I have told mothers in
this situation is to imagine how things are going to work out if they make
the decision to formula feed, then the baby continues to refuse anything but
the breast.

In other words, how is switching to formula really going to solve her
problem?  It may not.  And in the process, she would lose so much.  She
would lose the capacity she now has to reconnect with her baby at the end of
a workday by breastfeeding.  She would likely end up with a baby who is more
susceptible to illness.  She would be giving up so much with no real promise
of anything gained.  I would strongly urge her to stick with it and continue
to try to find a way to feed this baby with EBM.  It will definitely be
worth it in the long run.  The fact that the baby nurses almost constantly
in the 24 hours following a 12-hour workday is very typical, especially in a
young baby.  Again, reassuring her that this is normal for babies of working
mothers may in itself be helpful.

Sincerely,
Sara Dodder Furr, MA, LLL Leader
Lincoln, Nebraska

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