My friend has a 4 week old daughter, Holly, and Gill has been breast feeding her until this weekend when Holly stopped feeding.

Now Gill's milk is beginning to dry up and Holly is suckling for 10 minutes falling asleep from the exhaustion of sucking and then waking up hungry again.

Gill doesn't know what to do for the best. She understands that breast is best but realises that if Holly doesn't start to eat soon her weight will drop and the potential for illness is high.

Gill would like to know what are the implications for Holly is she starts bottle feeding? Gill has heard that it isn't just a question of lowered immunity but is also a question of reduced muscle tone. How significant is this issue?

Please contact me by e-mail as soon as possible.

petenju@hotmail.com

Regards

Julia

When my daughter was born she would not breastfeed. I pumped my breast and put it in a bottle. That was the only way I could get her to drink breast milk. After nursing successfully the other 6 children it upset me. Maybe she could try that. Good Luck,Karen

But do you think there were any detrimental effects of being bottle fed for your child?

Julia

She should definatley use a bottle and a breats pump if she is for sure only going to breast feed. She has to ween the baby off anyway to a bottle as she gets older(most do anyway) and there is no effects from using a bottle and breats milk if anything it will help the baby get the nutrition she needs at a rate thats good for her.It is alot easier for her to get the breats milk. The fact is ds kids often have problems with an uncoordinated suck. Take playtex disposable liner bottles for example... the nipples are bigger than most womens(excuse the term) and ny daughter had no problems sucking but just couldn't use them. They are too small for ds kids.We switched her to evenflo silicone nipple bottles and the problems went away and she got bigger and fed and fed and fed!! I have heard that many times about breast feeding and ds kids from my friends. Tons of women never breast feed they use a breast pump and a bottle.Thats what I am doing when my 2nd is born in aug.Hope that helped.

Also the problems you describe about bottle feeding Ie: low muscle tone etc. they are not true at all in any sense.If it were all kids would have the problems.You just need to sterilize the bottled before every use. DS babys have low muscle tone no matter what.Im surprised her doctor hasn't told her this?

[This message has been edited by Kennedy (edited 03-19-2001).]

My daughter had no ill effects from pumping breast milk and using the bottle. She got what she needed from the breast milk and I still cuddled her when she ate. It's the next best thing. I hope it works out. Karen

My daughter was ill with a heart condition as an infant and was so weak she was unable to suck, even from a bottle. I pumped and poured the milk into a g-tube (a tube that stuck out of her tummy). She had that tube until she was 2 1/2. Now at age 7 she is fine and has no adverse affects from the way she was fed. I, too, was very concerned about it when she was little as breast feeding was very important to me, but it turned out okay.

It probably would be a good idea to have the baby checked by a cardiologist. Exhaustion from feeding can be (but isn't always) caused by congenital heart disease.