heres a couple of good ones i have heard. neonatologist won't allow
fingerfeeding because "we can't meaure intake" (then what are those strange
and obscure markings on the side of the fingerfeeding device "alison
hazelbaker fingerfeeder" to use the cryptic initials)?  of course, on the
other hand, i got this doc to let my client feed her 3.5 lb. preemie while
taking lithium, so it ain't an entirely bad story.

but how about another hospital where they told the dad that the baby "had" to
have a bottle because nursing wouldn't provide a big enough feeding, and that
if the stomach didn't get a big enough feeding at one time, it would "shut
down and quit digesting" - they told him to think of it as a switch in the
stomach that had to be 'turned on' by a big feeding. and just think about what
was happening prior to oral feedings when the baby was on continuous gavage
feedings. how did they turn that switch on then? where is it located? why
don't adults or full-term babies have it?

couldn't figure out any rational explanation for that one at all. sometimes it
seems just deliberately cruel, the practices in the NICU. practices designed
to not only prevent successful breastfeeding, but to prevent successful
feeding of any kind in the future. why is there so much oral aversion
happening after being in a NICU? i believe i have already seen why. nurses
shoving bottles in baby's mouths, and wiggling, rotating and shoving them
about in the baby's mouth to "force" food into them within that magic thirty
minute limit. nurses letting babies cry until the magic three or four hour
(yes!) feeding time comes around, then telling mothers that "breastfeeding is
too tiring," and so forth and so on.

carol brussel IBCLC