Winnie states:


> I firmly believe that "nipple confusion" is a catch-all phrase for a
> number of potential problems when babies are asked to learn two skills
> at once that are different but with some similarities.  For each
> difference between nursing at the breast and taking milk from a bottle,
> there is a possibility of a problem

and then goes on to discribe the various possibilities of confusion to a
drinking baby. I'm glad to see a confirmation of my viws here. What I do add
in educating parents or professionals on this item is that any other way of
feeding a baby other than directly and without parafernalia can in one way or
another confuse a baby or create a preference. A bottle can, as we know, but
so can a finger or a cup. Some kids will accept about anything and still do a
good job at breast, others only need one drink elswhere and be bothered by it
for weeks.

I've seen quite a lot of babies lately, all born in the same hospital, with
the same pattern: baby drinks well at the bottle (which is almost routinely
introduced as it seems in that hospital), may even open wide to receive the
bottle nipple and also even take quite a mousfull of it into the mouth (like
all the way down the lid that keeps the nipple fit to the bottle). Then when
mom tries to latch baby, he will open wide and seek for something to put in
it and just not recognising the breast as an object that can be suckled. It
even looks like the baby doesn't even notice the breast being there.
I explain this to moms as ''the sun (bottle nipple) overglowing the
silvershining light of the moon (mom's nipple)''.

By the way: I recently send a sollicitation to this hospital to be assigned
as their new and first ever LC, because I kind of think they might use one :-/
Warmly greeting,

Gonneke
==================
Gonneke van Veldhuizen  =+=  IBCLC, LLLL, MOM  =+=  primairy school teacher

EUROLAC
breastfeeding information centre and lactation consultant practice
http://www.users.skynet.be/eurolac

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