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What About Nipple Confusion? Feeding Infant With Baby Bottle
The conventional wisdom used to be that baby’s should be exclusively breast fed for a certain amount of time. Some experts said 6 months, and some said 12 months or even longer. However, since not every mother has the ability to exclusively breastfeed, there were always alternate suggestions as well.
Over time, it turns out that there may not be a need for newborns or infants to breastfeed exclusively for any fixed period of time at all.
The main concern of lactation experts when it comes to mixing breast feeding with bottle feeding is what is termed "nipple confusion." Nipple confusion is when the baby gets "confused" with how to feed from both bottle and breast. It turns out, that when breastfeeding properly, this is not much of a concern at all.
Good breastfeeding is dependant upon the infant getting a proper latch. Most hospitals have a lactation consultant that will work with new mothers on obtaining the proper latch. There are numerous techniques and breastfeeding positions, or holds, that can be used by a mother to ensure a proper latch.
What is a a proper breastfeeding latch?
Basically, it is when the baby has the proper hold on the nipple with its mouth. The key thing to a good breast feeding latch is that more than just the tip of the nipple is in the baby’s mouth. If the baby takes just the center part of the nipple that extends out from the mother’s breast, they won’t get a good latch and may release too soon. Additionally, such a latch tends to cause painful breastfeeding and sore nipples.
A good breast feeding latch is when the baby has all of the center nipple AND some of the surrounding breast tissue in their mouth. This is not easy to accomplish at first, and even if the baby gets it right one time, the next time, they may not.
It is thought that introducing a bottle at this stage may make it harder for the baby to learn the proper technique. Considering what is known about baby’s memory (they don’t have very much of one) and the fact that any infant kept in a hospital nursery during feeding time, or any baby that isn’t getting enough hydration or nutrition will end up getting at least a few bottle feedings and then go on to breast feed for months or more without additional difficulty, the conclusion that bottle nipples will interfere with proper breastfeeding might not have much merit.
Once an infant develops a good breastfeeding technique and uses is consistently, it is committed into the only functioning memory a young infant has, muscle memory. Every time a baby is presented with the same approximate situation as before they will use their muscles in approximately the same way. This is how a baby learns to breastfeed.
After the baby and mother have both grown comfortable with breast feeding and can do it pretty much every time, it is now thought that introducing a bottle at this stage is not only not detrimental, but perhaps beneficial.
Our pediatrician (from a very respected practice) recommended at our baby’s one-month checkup that we introduce a once a day bottle feeding. Whether that bottle is full of breast milk or formula is a personal decision for the parents to make.
There are several benefits to introducing a bottle feeding for infants, not the least of which is allowing someone else, like dad, to feed the baby. Timing the bottle feeding right can give Mom several more hours of uninterrupted sleep and lead to a happier, better rested, more healthy mother and baby. Don’t forget that the same rules for baby formula apply.
Check with your pediatrician to see if introducing a bottle feeding is the right move for your infant. Keep in mind that just a few years ago, the advice of doctors and professionals was different, so it is important to get new, up to date advice.
Also, make sure an ask your pediatrician specifically about breast feeding and bottle feeding, especially if it isn’t your first baby. Many doctors, nurses, and other experts will assume that as an "experienced" parent they don’t need to talk to you about such things. For them, they’ve been giving the same advice for a couple of years now, and may not remember that they told you something different when your 3 year old was born.
BPA Gives Babies Cancer – FDA Doesn’t Care
Nothing really “gives” you cancer. Your body’s cells react to certain chemicals or events in ways that lead to cells mutating into cancer cells. One of these chemicals is BPA, also known as bisphenol A. Yet, this chemical is likely in the baby bottles you are using to feed your child baby formula or pumped breast milk, or in your toddler sippy-cups and spill-proof cups and yes, it is increasing their risk for cancer.
How can this be? Isn’t the FDA supposed to regulate chemicals like these and keep greedy, corporations from poisoning us and our children. The answer, is yes they are, but no they don’t. Unfortunately the FDA has become increasingly political and subject to undue influence from outside interests. In this case the plastics industry and manufacturers of plastic products. So, BPA is not safe. BPA causes cancer. The government doesn’t care. Well, the US government anyway. BPA is banned in Canada by an apparently less tainted government agency.
In over 100 studies performed around the world by numerous well respected scientists, universities, and research centers, BPA was found to increase the risk of cancer. In just 2 studies, BPA was shown to be safe. Guess who paid for those 2 studies? The Plastics Industry. And, based on those 2 studies the FDA approved BPA as a safe chemical to use in making all kinds of products including, BABY BOTTLES!!!!
Make no mistake, this conclusion is undisputed, BPA does cause cancer. What the plastics industry argues is that the amount of BPA you get when you use products with BPA in them is not enough BPA to cause cancer. In other words, yes, we are using a cancer causing material in our plastic products, but don’t worry because there isn’t enough of it to hurt you. Yeah, I feel safer already.
Actually, this doesn’t this sound really familiar? Oh yeah, replace BPA with smoking and Plastics Industry with Tobacco Industry and you have a replay of the “debate” about whether or not smoking causes cancer. It is the exact same blueprint. Use industry studies to produce “results” that show something every non-industry funded study in the world shows to be dangerous and then pretend like that is a real conflict of science and not a sham.
My dad told me that no long ago in this country there was a notion that when it came to children and babies, that safety is what mattered above all else. That meant if there was even the slightest doubt that something wasn’t completely safe, then it wasn’t done. That is why baby food used to only come in glass jars, because we knew for sure that it was safe. These days, it seems that the government and the FDA especially seem far more interested in protecting their big corporate donations than in protecting our children, who let’s face it, don’t really contribute very much money to political campaigns.
The FDA even refused to require that products be labeled so that people could make their own decisions about BPA! I guess we regular people are just too stupid to know what is and isn’t good for us, so we can’t handle having truthful information about what a bottle does or doesn’t contain printed on the packaging.
Fortunately, the lie is beginning to unravel. A consortium of scientists have reported that the finding that BPA is safe is suspect at best and a sham at worst, especially in babies and children. The lead scientist from one of the studies used to “prove” that BPA was safe has said publicly that her research was flawed and even so, was never designed to offer proof that BPA was safe in anything other than the reproductive systems of rats.
Unfortunately, by the time the FDA gets around to doing the right thing, your baby could have been exposed to thousands of feedings from BPA tainted bottles. Since the FDA did not require labeling of plastics you can’t be sure if a bottle does or does not contain BPA unless it is labeled BPA-Free or Does Not Contain BPA. So, buy only baby bottles (and all other hard plastics) that are labeled BPA Free.
In the meantime, assume that all plastics not labeled BPA Free are cancer causing plastics.
Or, even easier, just remember one of these handy reminders:
NO BPA FREE label = CAUSES CANCER, DO NOT USE
CAUSES CANCER UNLESS LABELED BPA-FREE!
Baby Formula Rules
Baby Formula Has Rules
A lot of parenting comes with rules that are really more “best practices” than anything else. But, when it comes to baby formula, there are some real rules that have to be followed.
First, baby formula bottles cannot be re-used no matter how little the baby drinks. Bacteria from the baby’s mouth gets into the formula and it THRIVES there. A bottle that has been in the baby’s mouth for even one second is done for withing an hour. That’s the other rule. 1 hour shelf life once a drink has been taken, so if it is taking a long time to feed Junior after one hour a new bottle has to be made.
Do Not Microwave Baby Bottles
Rule number 2 is just as important. Never, ever, ever microwave baby formula inside a baby bottle. One reason is that it can get too hot and even with shaking one part might be hot enough to burn the baby’s mouth. Even worse is that baby bottles are routinely made from plastic using a compound that has been shown to cause cancer in over 100 studies. However, the FDA chose not to regulate this process because 2 studies said it didn’t. Guess who paid for the two studies? Hello, Plastics Industry. Yet again, goverment cares more about dollars. So our kids get cancer, at least no one has to worry about getting their campaign contributions next year. Microwaving any foodstuffs in plastics is a bad idea, but especially the formula that your super-sensative baby will be drinking. Heat the bottle another way, or if you want to microwave, make sure you do it outside of the bottle and then pour it in after.
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