Cathy --

        Can you give more info about the baby?  Why did mom give bottles in
the hospital?   What interventions in labor?  Interventions after delivery -
i.e. suctioning, etc.?  How old is the baby now?  I recently worked with a
mom whose baby was very traumatized after delivery -- baby had some meconium
aspiration, was suctioned, intubated, and (of course) bottlefed by the
nursery nurses after extubation.  The baby refused the breast for a day,
then slowly took one side (24 hours later). Mom attempted nursing every
feeding, pumped if baby refused and chose to bottlefeed the pumped milk as
well as additional ABM.   She cuddled her baby closely during bottlefeeding
and placed the bottle alongside her breast so baby would turn in toward her
breast.  Baby began to nurse on the 2nd breast by the time he was 5 days
old.   Baby is 4 weeks old now and nursing well.  I think that many babies
are traumatized by interventions to their oral area (suctioning, intubation,
bottles shoved in, and being forced onto the breast) that they just don't
want to open their mouths.  They need tincture of time and positive moments
at mothers breasts, just cuddling.  Keep us informed.

        Donna Zitzelberger RN BSN IBCLC