I had to weigh in on the comment that bottle warmers are unnecessary appliances, and allow a slightly wider perspective. Although it is true that bottle warmers are unnecessary for successful breastfeeding, they go a long way psychologically to help those close to the dyad to support breastfeeding. I have worked with many fathers (my own dh included) as well as daycare providers who felt overwhelmed by guidelines to warm breastmilk under running water, etc. Their perception was that breastmilk needed lots of special care and attention, and it turned into some kind of formidable task to *prepare* a bottle of breastmilk, whereas formula was "so easy, you just dump it in and shake it up." This perception makes it difficult for them to fully support a mom's efforts to express and collect milk for later use while she is away. The addition of a "gadget" that makes it *so easy* is a lifesaver for them, and suddenly *preparing* a bottle of breastmilk is also so easy! I wholeheartedly agree that a mom does not need to be encouraged to use a bottle warmer if her baby is receiving expressed milk, and that it is a harmless device, or at least no more harmful than other safe heating methods to the quality of the milk. However, there are some people (certainly not all members of any group, I am not making a sweeping generalization) for whom a bottle warmer can help overcome a significant psychological barrier. While we spend a lot of time (well, I do) thinking about psychological barriers for women to nurse, and a lot of time (well, I do) thinking about how to help others support women in their decisions to breastfeed, sometimes we overlook the important psychological barriers of the supporters. Bottle warmers are one of those goofy things that grandma says to put on your registry, because she had one (speaking from personal experience). As kooky as it sounds, a bottle warmer can help 'normalize' breastmilk for a family already providing expressed milk to the baby. [my caveat is that obviously and of course I would never advocate a family start expressing milk so that a bottle warmer can be used] One more aspect of the bottle warmer - techie boys (I mean men) think bottle warmers are really cool. You'd think they've never seen a hotpot before. Katherine Shealy T-6 days *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html