"I think I also see this kind of thing with babies who have very high or
notched palates. They become easliy "hooked on the bottle" because, in
fact, it is the only way they get fed. The mom will sometimes report
lack of time or sore nipples as what led to bottles... but the bottom
line was the palate shape. Any input?"

Have to jump in here. My 7.5 month old daughter has a high palate. I was
never sore and she had no problems feeding problems and gained weight no
problems. I did have oversupply, mastitis issues in the first month though.
But back to becoming hooked. I'm not so sure it's so black and white. From
my personal experience (and I've yet to find a another baby with a high
palate) feeding from the breast doesn't necessarily have to be a drama -
especially if the mother has a good milk supply and a good functioning MER.
I also think, and I know this is stating the blindingly obvious, is that a
good latch/position is everything - going deeper and deeper on the breast
during a feed (means re-latching several times per breast).
I also believe (again n=1) that babies with high palates will often reject a
bottles anyway. Due often to a hypersensitive gag reflex in the palate - a
bottle teat is very hard compared to a breast. Seen this with my own baby,
if you try and give a bottle of expressed milk, then she gags like your
choking her! Tried all sorts of teats including the Haberman  (she accepted
this twice). Luckily for her there have only been a couple of occasions
where I needed to leave her with expressed BM. Catherine Watson-Genna is the
one to ask about high palates (or one of them!).

Sara Bernard
The Netherlands

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