Although Donald and I made the decision together that I would breastfeed Charlotte, we do give her a few bottles each week. This is a photograph of the Adiri bottle, a bottle that is shaped like a breast and that we purchased with the hopes that it would help Charlotte and I avoid the pain of nipple confusion.
The Adiri bottle is a great bottle and I love it, but as long as I’ve admitted that we bought it in the hopes of avoiding nipple confusion, I would like to take a moment to say something about all of that nipple confusion YOUR BABY WILL NEVER TAKE YOUR BOOB IF SHE’S HAD AN ARTIFICIAL NIPPLE stuff I read that scared me half to death. And that something is this: BULLSHIT. Not only does my baby take artificial nipples, but she doesn’t treat my nipple any differently as a result. Seriously. They should just take that phrase out of the English vernacular. Nipple confusion my ass.
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We never had problems with nipple confusion either. I haven’t tried those bottles, but I agree with the above, I swear by platex drop-ins. After 10 weeks of spitting up and vomiting after each feeding, we tried the playtex. No more gas, no more spitting up, I don’t know what took that long to learn….
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Have not had problems with nipple confusion either. We use the Playtex drop-ins, and also the breastflow bottle by First Years. Wonderful bottle!
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I think nipple confusion is just something the La Leche nazis came up with. River never had any problem. And we used plain old fashion glass bottles with cheap latex nipples that came with them. No waste, reuseable and no plastic toxins.
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okay, i’m so glad to hear you say this. because i’m a little freaked out by the “nipple confusion” thing, too. i want to breastfeed, but don’t want the baby chained to my body at all times.
so it’s good to know. am dying to see what else “they” say is total bullsh**.
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OMG I’m here to tell you that for SOME babies IT DOES HAPPEN. When my baby was born he wouldn’t suck on my breast (I believe the anesthesia ruined his instinct) and I made the mistake of giving him a bottle. Let me tell ya….those first two weeks were THE HARDEST OF MY LIFE. I tried endlessly offering my breast and he wouldn’t take it, he would only take bottles. Then after two weeks, he took my breast only because I had a nipple shield on. After he learned how to feed from my breast I’ve tried many times giving him a bottle again and he just won’t take it. I’m not saying it happens to every baby, but for some babies IT IS POSSIBLE and its not bullsh**, as somebody put it.
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Heidy - I think I owe you an apology. You’re the first person I’ve ever encountered who had issues with nipple confusion, but if it’s happened to one, it’s happened to others, so I am sorry that I called nipple confusion bullshit. I cannot imagine the difficulty involved with trying to convince a baby to take the breast, but I know it cannot have been easy. Hats off to you for sticking with it; I hope that it’s gotten easier with time.
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Heidy:
My baby latched OK for the first 2-3 days. I had a C-section and was in the hospital for 4 days after she was born. But then she just quit. No idea why, it certainly wasn’t nipple confusion because she had not been given any other nipples. I’m talking 1.5 hours of struggle to get her to nurse for 10 minutes.
I tried a board certified lactation consultant, who recommended a chiropractor which we also tried. I tried with a nipple shield, without a nipple shield. Cross-cradle hold, football hold, laying on the bed. I tried nursing her in her sleep. I tried putting milk on my nipple. If there was a theory, we looked into it, trust me. She still would maybe latch one out of every 6 times we tried, but it would take a bunch of stress and crying (on both our parts) and then she’d only stay on for 10 minutes or so and then she was still hungry, but was done with my boobs.
So I exclusively pumped for three months. Then I tried her again, and voila! She nurses like a champ now. Which is amazing.
All this to say A) I feel your pain and B) it’s possible that she wouldn’t have latched right away anyway.
But yeah, if I were to have another baby, I wouldn’t use a bottle at first unless absolutely necessary either.
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As a mom of four, I can tell you that nipple confusion DOES exist. They’re all different, you are lucky and can do both. Some people aren’t so lucky.
@Brittany La Leche nazi? Kind of harsh ... ouch!
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By on September 02, 2009
Hey, just found your blog a few weeks ago. I also have a wee Charlotte at home. Mine is 5 1/2 months now.
I just wanted to tell you to watch out on those Adiris. My Charlotte didn’t latch until she was 3 months old. We began by using the Adiris and eventually had to switch to Playtex drop-ins.
First, I didn’t read the directions and put the Adiri in the dishwasher. It got all messed up. It leaked from the bottom and was clogged in the nipple.
Then I bought two new ones and the nipples on those were really fast for some reason. I started going through WAY too much breastmilk.
Anyway, if you start to have problems with your Adiris after a while, I highly recommend the Playtex drop-ins with slow flow naturalatch nipples.