I have read a few posts in the past weeks that recommend using wide neck
bottles to assess a baby's capacity to suck at a breast.  I am concerned
that putting a bottle in a baby's mouth might be seen as a benign
intervention. (Having seen babies who seem to have imprinted on a long hard
plastic nipple and find it difficult to attach to mother's actual anatomy, I
am not sure that it is.)  Even if it is a benign intervention, I am also
concerned because I doubt very much that what happens at a breast is in any
way related to what a baby does at a bottle (with the possible exception of
the application of negative pressure). And I worry that this practice might
communicate to mothers that bottle-sucking is normal, accepted, easy, that
the effectiveness of breastfeeding can be gauged by a comparison with
(reliable, easy, quantifiable, normal) bottle-feeding.
I would be really interested to hear more about this practice.  How do you
find it helpful? Does it reveal anything you can't observe at the breast?
What makes you think that what it does reveal will be useful for solving a
breastfeeding difficulty?
Nina Berry BA/Bed(Hons) Dip Arts(Phil)
Breastfeeding Counsellor
PhD Candidate - "Ethical Issues in the marketing of 'Toddler Milks'"

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