I have supported mothers with this idea, too.

Skin to skin, laid back breastfeeding, giving a bottle *as if* you 
were breastfeeding....and remove the stress for both mother and baby 
of the fight.

Sometimes, mothers are overly-terrified of the baby 'getting used to 
the bottle', but we have so little research on this, and we cannot 
predict that babies who have bottles will certainly give up on the 
breast.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK





>Dear Lactnet Friends,
>When I have a mother call me who has a baby who is fighting at the 
>breast I sometime suggest she just stop "trying" to breastfeed. This 
>suggestion is best for the moms and baby who try to latch for 10-30 
>minutes eight times a day or more, never do latch, and then give a 
>bottle.
>Latching is not working anyway, mom and baby are crying, so why not 
>stop for a few days? This works shockingly well. I tell the mom, 
>"the baby isn't latching anyway so why not enjoy him instead?" Often 
>mothers cry with relief that she can stop trying something that is 
>not working anyway and just love her baby. Sometimes she has been 
>working so hard on trying to breastfeed that the interactions with 
>her baby suck! What is the definition of insanity? To expect 
>different results doing the same thing.
>I suggest lots and lots of skin to skin during this break, I agree 
>completely with Nikki about laid back BF, if the baby heads to the 
>breast, great. If not, when I see them, often the baby has seemed to 
>forget they were so stressed at the breast. We can start again in a 
>very gentle way. I also suggest that the parents use paced bottle 
>feeding as well so the baby gets used to feeding taking effort and 
>time.
>Good luck!
>
>--
>
>Barbara Robertson, MA, IBCLC, RLC
>The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor
>bfcaa.com

-- 

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