Virginia, glad you shared this info before going off Lactnet for awhile. As someone dealing mainly with MOM, bottles related to ineffective early BF, "relief" feeds, etc. are common. I've learned a lot from these mothers re: transitioning babies to breast or going back and forth. However, you gave me new ideas to add to my skills bag. Many thanks!

Karen


In a message dated 11/11/2003 4:57:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:

> Hi, As regards pacing bottle-feeding:  One of the things I do when mothers come to me for assistance in increasing suppply and reducing/eliminating bottle use, is to get them to start using the bottle in a different way.  I teach them to put the bottle down several times, including in the first few minutes, so that they become accustomed to *not* having a continuous flow.   The idea is to get the baby comfortable with not having the liquid keep coming, irrespective of what s/he does, and to be more inclined to accept the starts and stops during breastfeeding.  I also recommend that the mother use two different bottle teats, so that they don't have a "familiar" feel they get used to at the bottle, the one constant being Mum.   The really slow artificial teats (nipples) that used to be available here in the 1960s haven't been made for years, and so I suggest the mother get the slowest ones she can find 
> (though they aren't very slow).