Do you folks get calls asking how to "get the baby take a bottle"?  It's my
least favorite call, I think.  Here I am, working with babies who have so
much trouble learning to suckle at the breast and I get calls from moms of 3
or 4 month olds who won't take a bottle and I am supposed to have a solution
to this "problem."

I give the tips in the BAB and other things that mothers have shared, but
sometimes a baby just won't play it. The mother calls back and wants further
assistance.  The baby is now "the enemy."  He is "refusing" to even try.
"What's wrong with him that he can't get milk from a bottle?"  It is also
the fault of breastfeeding, of course.

I haven't yet said, "Hey, Why did you call me?  I am a breastfeeding
specialist not a bottle feeding specialist!" Nor have I yelled, "I have four
women who would soooo like their babies to feed at their breasts but the
babies haven't learned, and they are heroic in their efforts. And you want
your baby to NOT breastfeed?!"

I did ask one mother what she thinks her friend's bottle feeding baby would
do if she put her to the breast.

I've had a hard two days with really serious cases and I really didn't want
to call this mother for a second time in two weeks.  She has been wanting to
go out for an entire evening leaving a bottle, and today she told me that
she is going away for a extended period in May and he MUST take a bottle.
That info. sure cheered me up!

Soooooo, is there anything "nice" and helpful that you could suggest beyond
what BAB suggests?

Do you really put time and energy into this? Do you show compassion because
you know that she is victim of her culture that sees a baby who won't take a
bottle as abnormal?

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, where the Comet is making babies and mothers go berserk.

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