Late Nipple Confusion
Carrie Ganz
Arlington VA USA
From: NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 16 No. 2, March-April 1999, p. 43
We provide articles from our publications from previous years for reference for our Leaders and members. Readers are cautioned to remember that research and medical information change over time.
At our last Area Conference,
a Leader I know commented that sometimes it seems she has experiences
just so she can pass the information on to other women. This reminded
me of a recent incident with my daughter, Walden.
I leave my babies infrequently,
but when Walden was six months old, I needed to leave her for two hours
with my husband. I left plenty of pumped milk and lots of instructions
for Walter. Among his many options for feeding the baby, he chose to
use the bottle. She took to it well and fell asleep in his arms. I nursed
her immediately after I walked in the door and she latched on fine.
The next day was a different
story. She was fussy at the breast for most of the day and in the evening
she bit me. The day after that was even worse. She bit me so hard that
I yelled, and that triggered a six-hour nursing strike. I was scared
to nurse her again for fear of being bitten, and she refused to latch
on. Finally, she became sleepy and we nursed lying down in a dark room.
At one point, while I was
carrying her around in an attempt to calm her, we walked past the drying
rack in the kitchen, and she reached out for the bottle! I felt awful!
That was the clue that made my co-Leader suggest that the bottle triggered
the nursing strike. I had thought she was too old to have trouble switching
between bottle and breast, especially since she seemed to nurse well
just after she had the bottle.
Then I remembered that my
older daughter also had problems with artificial nipples. When Meridian
was 14 months old, I was providing childcare for other young children
and they used bottles. One day, Meridian decided that she needed one,
too. I gave her one filled with water. For the next week nursing was
very uncomfortable for me, and she left teeth imprints on my breast,
which she had never done before. Things did improve, and after that
I avoided giving her bottles even to play with.
We say babies have "nipple
confusion" if they have difficulty breastfeeding after using artificial
nipples, whether bottles or pacifiers/dummies. The term is usually associated
with newborn babies, and some authorities disagree about how significant
it is. Whatever the label, it makes sense that an older baby might struggle,
too. He can bite on an artificial nipple (or on a cup with a spout)
with no consequences. Sometimes, a mother may even be unaware that her
baby is biting these inanimate objects. But she can't fail to notice
when he does the same thing at the breast.
Since having this experience,
I've talked with other several other mothers who had similar problems
with older babies. Some of them had made the connection between artificial
nipples and biting for themselves, but others had not realized that
this could be a problem for an older baby. Their sharing and support
not only helped me to get my baby back to the breast, but made me wonder
if nipple confusion persists beyond the early months. I hope that hearing
my story will help another mother avoid a painful bite or work with
her baby to stop his biting.
Adapted from an article
from the January 1998 issue of LLL of Virginia's Area Leaders' Letter
Visions.
Last updated Tuesday, October 3, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:30:53 UTC 2007.
