With adopted babies, the cases where I am convinced that ff helped were with
older babies, where mom held the back of her hand against her body, so that
the baby's face would be right up into the breast.  Often, getting the baby
to accept this position is the biggest hurdle.  This can also be done by
threading a feeding tube through a bottle nipple.  The baby is then in
position, where the mother can move the finger or bottle nipple, and be able
to get her breast in.  Most babies are more likely to accept the change when
they are sleeping in that position, and still sucking.  Also, if the baby's
position has to be shifted before he can get to the breast, he is more
likely to wake up and notice that Mom is trying to trick him into taking the
breast.

I have also seen cases where adoptive moms were told to ff, and not try to
latch the baby, until they could have a LC to help them.  For many moms
adopting newborns, this means that a significant amount of time will go by
before the breast is introduced.  This is especially true for interstate
adoptions, which require the adoptive mom to travel to pick up her baby, and
then spend a week or so waiting for clearance to take the baby home.   In
such a case, I think it is best for the adoptive mom to have some
instruction on breastfeeding techniques, tape her supplementer tube (if she
needs it) and go ahead and try to get the baby started nursing.  All that
time sitting in a hotel can be very well used, if the baby can just nurse
however much he will, which will both establish the breastfeeding
relationship, and help get mom's milk supply going.  Even if the baby's
latch is not the greatest, at first, having him at the breast is preferable.
As far as having a LC there, I think that it is great, if it can be done
when baby is first placed, but that suggesting that moms not even try to
nurse without a LC, in addition to increasing the risk of nipple confusion
in a newborn, also gives moms the idea that nursing, with or without, a
supplementer is a very difficult thing that they won't be able to do by
themselves.  The latter, especially, is what I think is one of the main
reasons that we are seeing so many adoptive mothers now who go to great
efforts to produce milk in advance, but get totally stressed by their
efforts to establish breastfeeding,  and then feed any milk they are able to
pump in bottles, or through ff.

To tell the truth, except for being able to be held facing right into the
body, and tasting skin, I have never understood how having a baby sucking on
a finger is any more like breastfeeding than one of the better bottle
nipples.  Perhaps the best thing about it, in non-adoptive situations, is
that it helps parents stick with trying to breastfeed, where they may be
more likely to fall into a routine with bottles and stick with it.

Aloha,
Darillyn

_________________________________________________________________
Take advantage of our limited-time introductory offer for dial-up Internet
access. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html