Nancy--
What a struggle you had with your baby, and I'm sure being an LLL Leader
made it all the harder to bottle-feed. Good for you to perservere and get
the baby to the best.

I remember reading in LEAVEN a story about a Leader in S. Africa who had a
baby with galactosemia, so couldn't bf. I cried reading that, knowing how it
would have hurt me to bottle-feed, especially having already bf a baby.

I once worked with another Leader who had a baby who was FTT (her 5th baby,
first time she'd ever had weight gain problems with one) and had to tell her
to start supplementing, and start right away.. She was grateful for the
direction, and did finally get the baby bf completely, but told me later how
she'd gone through all the guilt and agony associated with a skinny baby,
including not going anywhere, and when going out, dressing the baby in
several sleepers to make her look bigger. And the agony of a Leader needing
to use that "other stuff" can be horrible--I'm glad you related your story
for us, to remind us to be diplomatic and delicate with women's feelings.

At LLL meetings I often use a little spiel encouraging the mothers there not
to be judgemental about women who are bottle-feeding, because we have no
idea just why they are not bf, and that we don't want women who are
bottle-feeding to be made to feel the way bf mothers were not so many years
ago (and still made to feel in many places). I've had many women thank me
for the "speech," saying they'd never really thought about it that way
before. We can't afford to develop a generation of righteous bf women who
make other women feel like inferior mothers. We need knowledgeable mothers
who can support all women, regardless of how they feed/nurture, and maybe
those women who didn't breastfeed will with their next baby. I'm actually
pretty good now at counseling women who have decided to stop bf due to what
are for them insoluble problems (and what is soluble to one is not
necessarily to another), and trying to preserve their self-esteem during
that very difficult time.

Off this particular soapbox for now...
Leslie Ayre-Jaschke, BEd, IBCLC
Peace River Breastfeeding Clinic
Peace River Alberta, Canada