nipple confusion

From: womanht
Date: 30 Apr 2001
Time: 14:41:53
Remote Name: sbproxy3.mystarhub.com.sg

Comments

When my first kid was born, I put him to my breast within the first hour. The teat from the bottle was not offered to him in his first days. He was able to breast feed relatively easily.

When my younger kid was born, there was some delay in giving him his hepatitis B vaccines and antibodies. As I am a hepatitis B carrier (E antigen negative though) I was not allowed to feed him before the vaccine. During that period, he was bottle fed formula milk.

When I finally was allowed to breast feed my younger kid, he was unable to adjust to taking milk from my breast. He kept nipple feeding and not breast feeding. It was painful for me and frustrating for him as he could not get much milk out.

It seems that he could have gotten used to the bottle instead. A different technique is required by the baby to extract milk from the breast than simply let it trickle out from the bottle.

After a few days, a breastfeeding consultant came to visit us. She taught my baby how to feed. She got him to open his mouth wide to take in the nipple and the area around the nipple. Soon, he was feeding properly and it was definitely less painful than previously.