Mary Kay says,
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Please don't beat me for this observation but I'm wondering if sometimes it
would be an OK thing to have vendors at conferences to explain these things.
Banning them completely may have created an entire "generation" of LCs who
don't know about how different nipples work.
I find it frustrating to teach a breastfeeding class and have mothers ask a
million questions about bottles and nipples. But they consider us to be
experts on baby feeding and I try to answer as best I can
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I'm going to use one of my precious three available postings for the day,
and hope nothing else interesting comes by, to respond to this. Mary Kay, I
think you are right on target here. It IS frustrating to not know anything
about bottle nipples and how they work and how to choose the right one for the
right baby. No one bottle nipple is right for every baby, and I think when we
are the ones in the position to choose a bottle nipple for a baby that has
to be supplemented (and the parents want to use a bottle), then we have to
know what the heck we are talking about. Barbara Wilson Clay has done a
masterful job of talking about what to look for in a bottle in a particular baby --
does the baby seal around the base (I have some great pictures of baby Deven
with the milk just bubbling out around the base of the nipple because he
couldn't make a good seal on that). I agree that the Avent nipple is, for most
babies, too long and too firm, and I rarely, if ever, can get a newborn to
take it in all the way to the base with the lips flanged around it. I like
the Evenflo Elite (the old one) with the wide base and the shorter nipple, but
not every baby can use that one either. (Deven can't -- his tongue tie means
he needs a longer nipple). Short of purchasing one of every bottle on the
market and playing with it ourselves, how are we going to know what to use and
how to use it, and which babies are going to benefit from which bottle??
I have more along this vein -- and also along the lines of being an infant
feeding specialist, but I've nattered on long enough.
Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC -- one post down, two to go for today.
Wheaton IL
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com
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