I agree with Dr. Newman that any nurse or staff person can get around this issue.  Many times I've heard a nurse from "triage" inform parents that "Your baby's blood sugar is low even though he breast fed.  Would you like me to give him a bottle?"
Good way to scare any new parent!  Therefore most of them agree to it.  Later, the documentation in the baby's chart goes something like this:  Accucheck low pc.  Permission from mom to bottle feed.  Was this really permission?  At the hosp. where I work, we are to document all reasons for supplementation/complementary feedings. This is often not done.  Many nurses take it upon themselves to "top baby up"  because he just br. fed an hour ago. Often, the mother doesn't know this is done even though we are to get permission to supp/comp babys. And when she is approached because "your baby is still fussy and won't settle, would you like me to give him a little bit extra" most of them agree.  The message they oftern hear is "you don't have enough milk"  Again, what new, inexperienced mother is going to say no.  We do have a breastfeeding protocol which has just recently been revised in the hopes it will provide continuity of care.  We have regular breast feeding chart audits to try to identify areas of strength and weaknesses.  Hopefully, we'll begin to see a change in attitude.  Nurses need to leave their own personal experiences and beliefs at home.

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