Ruthy Wilson re: Nipple Confusion The truth is finally coming out about
nipple confusion ! THERE IS NO NIPPLE CONFUSION ! I beleive that all babies
want breasts. Chloe Fisher, your neonatologist, myself and many other LC's
have found this to be true. Yes all will return to the breast, days, weeks,
even some after 3 months of bottles have returned. The best mouth profile on
an artificial nipple, that looks like the mouth of a properly attached
infant with effective milk transfer, is on the Avent bottle from England.
Make sure nipple is in deep enough so mouth is open on the larger bulb area.
Many of my mothers say how this looks like the baby is on the breast.  We
have got to stop making the bottle an enemy. If you tell a mom she has to
get her baby on the breast within 6 hours after birth and she does not
accomplish this, she considers herself a failure and feels guilty. I just
had this happen,(again) to a mom who in spite of the fact her baby first
turned blue, then was breathing too fast to be able to nurse, she kept
thinking she had blown it and the baby was not going to nurse, EVER. This
baby would not nurse for the first 48 hours, and had bottles to boot!
Needless to say this baby is doing fine and nursing up a storm. We are
shooting ourselves in the foot by making all these " rules" for success !
Just as in anything we all differ. How come we don't make allowances for the
babies reaction to his/her birth ? just because mom had an easy time doesn't
mean baby did. Why should a mother who has been told to avoid bottles at all
costs, initiate the steps to return baby to BF  when she is already doomed,
" nipple confusion ". Perhaps the British generally do not seem to believe
in nipple confusion and therefore do not have that to overcome making it
easier to return to the breast. If women don't want to hand express get them
pumps. Everyone associates formula with bottles because of the  advertising.
Why don't we use that to our advantage and make EBM the "thing" for bottles?
At least then moms wouldn't have an excuse to say " I might as well go to
formula " because the bottle is only associated with formula, and or failure
to breastfeed. We need to stop refering to formula feeding as bottle
feeding. Perhaps we are making it to hard for moms to get their babies to
the breast. I can tell you in part what I do to make all my babies go to
breast. I am looking to do a study to prove there is no nipple confusion so
I won't give any great detail. 1. I pray for all my moms 2. I tell my moms
there is no nipple confusion 3.I tell my moms that their baby wants their
breast 4. I then teach them how to quickly attach their baby to their breast
( by the way I have not used a nipple shield in 2 years ) 5. I always tell
them what a great areola they have and that they don't need a nipple, except
to center the areola in the babies mouth, and as a vehicle for the milk to
come out of the breast.
I find too much dissappointment and failure to breastfeed based on the
professionals opinion of their nipple, and many "inversion" nipples NOT TRUE.
This is another area we need to clean up, after all how can one possible
nurse with the difficulty of THAT NIPPLE ! Another area we need to address
is that of the returning working moms. I have moms who returned to work and
baby refused to nurse. This they attributed to nipple confusion. I tell them
these babies were upset with their moms absence due to her returning to work
( missing mom)and NOT NIPPLE CONFUSION. I then tell them to go home and put
that baby back on breast, and they report back that the baby has in fact
gone back to nursing. We are taking the babies behavior and blaming it on
ourselves, flat nipple, nipple confusion. Just as many moms think a nursing
strike is the baby weaning themselves, ( believe me I heard of a 4 month old
weaning themselves ! how silly, another story ) think of a child who weans
themselves before they are able to substain on table foods and cup ! These
alone will increase your breastfeeding successes, and make you feel better.
GOT to go hope this helps.
Annie Peterson RN,CLC,IBCLC, Colorado Springs, Colorado 719-592-0929