Wonder why?.......

Do you wonder how the term "nipple confusion" was coined? Me too! Babies like to suck on almost anything - their hands, your finger, your face, the corner of a blanket, a pacifier, their mom's breast, and a bottle. Newborn babies are not very picky, they are used to sucking their hands. Often, they get in the way when you try to latch them to your breast. I think that babies do not necessarily have nipple confusion but, they more likely have "flow" confusion. A baby will always drink from a bottle because they cannot stop the flow. It does not mean they want to eat all of the bottle and they prefer formula, it just means they can only keep swallowing until whomever is feeding them takes the nipple out. If your baby is having difficulty with breast feeding and you choose to give a supplement, how you hold your baby to bottle feed is very important if breastfeeding is your ultimate goal.

In the early days of breastfeeding, your colostrum is thick and small in volume. That is by design, your newborn has to learn to coordinate sucking with breathing and swallowing. If you give a bottle, hold your baby swaddled on their side perpendicular to you. Hold the bottle sideways also, so, your baby has to draw the milk out of the bottle. This is called paced bottle feeding and it teaches your baby to suck to get their food. It also allows your baby to stop and take a breath and start eating again. They can control the flow of milk and "put their fork down for a few seconds". It also helps your baby to keep sucking to eat rather than two sucks and wait for flow from the bottle.