In a message dated 3/24/00 10:28:17 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< My big concern is that the baby decreases wet diapers and has no poops at
all
when mom just nurses. The 6-7X is pumping--mom is putting baby to breast
every time the baby wakes (2-3, rarely 4 hour intervals). She is exhausted,
as she has been doing this for 3 weeks and spends up to an hour working on
nursing and then still has to pump. >>

Should I hesitate to say that this mother might try a nipple shield (in spite
of the low milk supply when pumping) just for a few feedings??  It sounds
very possible to me that this baby just doesn't "get" what to do with a soft
and smushy areola/nipple when she has been eating from a finger or a bottle
all these weeks.  Bottles and fingers are hard and can go straight back to
the junction of the hard and soft palate, stimulating a reasonable suck,
without much doing on the baby's part.  The sucking mechanism at the breast
is, of course, very different.  The baby may be falling asleep at the breast
("checking out" is what I call it) because she has no reason to believe that
sucking at this place will get her any milk.  As the mother is unwilling to
go the supplementer route again, a nipple shield may be one stop-gap measure
to atleast stimulate the baby  to do a little active sucking at the breast as
she had been doing w/fingers and bottles.  It also might help with the
mother's confidence, just a little, so that she can hold her baby (skin to
skin as much as possible,too) while feeding her in the intimate way that
breastfeeding provides.  This mom may be feeling very rejected by the baby
and sounds close to giving up on breastfeeding all together.  A few nipple
shield feedings will not make or break what happens with this dyad, IMHO, and
may just help.  I have seen it happen!

Lisa Jones in Wellington FL- west of Palm Beach where there just aren't
enough people who know squat about lactation to go around ;-0  Keeps me busy.

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