Feeding the monster(s)

No, the kids aren't monsters, not at all.

The next most frequent question we got, as some of our peer-new-parents found the new mom's going back to work and wanting to switch their children to the bottle, was:

How did you get your kids to take the bottle?

This goes to the question of feeding, and as I mentioned in the previous post, we had a terrific lactation consultant to get us on that path. The 8-feedings per day schedule that BG had drawn up suggested, right up front, that we would feed one baby by bottle and one by breast, starting as early as the second week. BG's intent here was to make sure that both mother and child had a quality feeding, undistracted with excellent bonding. By only having 8 feedings per day, the baby would certainly be hungry, and would certainly be getting a full feeding. This was important nutritionally: the first milk to be let down during a feeding is the foremilk (mostly watery) and is followed by the hind-milk (richer, with more calories). Hence, the long, quality feeding would assure a healthy diet.

However, the baby not being fed by breast would be fed by bottle, and with JM's commitment to breast milk, that meant that right away, JM would hook herself up to a breast-pump after every feeding, and pump whatever was left out of the breast the baby fed on and whatever was present in the other breast.

BG also taught us (both) bottle feeding technique. When she had first told us about this approach, I had done just enough reading to learn the term "nipple confusion". Her reply was that it is a matter of technique. In Great Britain (where she is from), no one talks about nipple confusion because they know how to feed a baby by bottle. In short, don't just jam it in her mouth and expect results. Initially, you wet the baby's lips with a little milk from the bottle and wait for her to open her mouth. If she doesn't open her mouth, don't force the bottle in there. Once she opens, insert gently, pointing the bottle at the roof of her mouth so she has to engage her tongue upwards to suck, more similar to how she has to work at the breast. Done.

So we didn't really have advice for parents who wanted to introduce a bottle, especially a formula one, at any point later than we did, because from our perspective, we had to introduce a bottle right away, we chose to go with pumped breast milk, and they both took it without a problem. At this point, they still do and always have, and they are almost eleven months old.

Truly, JM's commitment to breast feeding is unusual. She has been diligent with the pump, and has always produced enough milk to feed both our children. It didn't look possible for a while, especially during some initial growth spurts, but eventually, a pattern emerged. She's going to go a whole year providing all of their milk herself. Quite an accomplishment!