Susan in MN wrote,

>I told her that
>exclusive breastmilk/breastfeeding has health benefits and I recommend
>using all the breast milk she has, then when baby is a little older,
>baby's system will be a little more mature and possibly handle the
>formula better.  She did not like that answer.  She wanted to introduce
>the formula right away.  I told her she could handle it the way she
>wanted to.   Later I kind of wondered why she had called our office if
>she had already  made a decision about the formula. 
>
Sometimes it's hard to figure out what she wanted to hear, what she 
needed to hear, and whether they were the same thing. I can think of a 
few things that might have motivated her call: she might have been told 
if you don't introduce bottles right away a baby won't take them at 
three months, she might think that she has run out of milk because she 
isn't leaking, she might have been in pain since the beginning. 
Open-ended questions can sometimes help in figuring out what she is 
really asking or saying as well as how to respond.

I don't think I've ever had a question about weaning or bottles that 
didn't lead to a fairly long conversation about how life with baby was 
going. That is not to say that all the mothers continued breastfeeding 
after talking to me, but at least I had the sense that they felt a bit 
better informed -- or at least I was!

Jo-Anne

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