Arggh! What a day! I started off my shift with report as usual and was told that one of the patients had wanted to BF, but the baby "would not eat." The night nurse (gotta luv 'em!-not) told the mom that she would go ahead and feed the baby ABM during the night so she could get a break and rest and not have to worry about the baby not eating. Well the baby did not like bottle feeding either. The baby is orally defensive. When anything is brought near her mouth, she clenches her jaws and will not root or open her mouth for ANYTHING!!! The baby also appears to have a mucous plug and spits up alot. After I spent over 30 minutes allaying the mother's fears about starvation, dehydration, and preference to bottle, she agreed to "try again." She seemed honestly interested in continuing BF, but too many people had told her too many things. She was constantly worried about her baby "starving." We tried every 2 hours to get the baby to nurse. She was VERY difficult to arouse, and at the third feeding (with alot of coaxing and training) the baby did root and attempt to latch, but she would not hold the breast in her mouth. I left her in hands of a not-so-gung-ho-breastfeeding advocate (I felt so guilty!!) I called back to the floor later this evening and the nurse said that the baby was not keeping down her formula and would not suck her bottle!!! I felt like my entire shift was worthless. The baby had not passed any meconium at 26 hours of age and ended up being placed NPO for studies as she was spitting everything up as well. It is so frustrating!!!! I'm hoping tommorrow I can get the mom to pump, and hopefully after the crisis the baby will BF. Any suggestions or ideas??? Frustrated, ~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^* Jeffrey S. Fouche, RN, BSN Breastfeeding Educator [log in to unmask] Web Page: http://members.gnn.com/jsfouche/breastfeeding.html Higher intelligence begins with breastfeeding! *~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~^*~