Hi all,

I haven't actually had my baby yet (I'm almost 28 weeks pregnant), but I've been wondering about a few things, so here goes:

I've heard it is best to be consistant with either breastfeeding, or bottle feeding. Would it confuse my baby if I was to breastfeed whenever we're at home, and if we're out, use pumped milk? I'm thinking I won't be totally comfortable breastfeeding in public....:rolleyes: I guess this also will come into play a little ways down the road if I'm not home, and DH has to feed baby....

Also, this is a totally unrelated question but my husband is a HUGE montreal Canadiens fan, so I bought some really cute pacifiers with the team logo on them, but it says it's only for use for babies 3-6 months old--is this how it is for all pacifiers, because I swear I've seen day old babies with them... Do you think it maybe has to do with the size of the nipple? Would it do any harm if I was to give my newborn baby a pacifier that says it's for 3-6 months?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!!!!

Whiskers :wave:

Your baby has to learn how to breastfeed. I was told by my lactation consultant not to pump or bottle feed until my dd was at least 3 weeks old. You dont want to have any nipple confusion or your baby take to the bottle rather than you if you plan on extended breastfeeding (6 months or longer). I did start to pump about 3 weeks but she didnt get a bottle until about 6 weeks. In the first 3 weeks your milk has to come in completely. Your baby will tell your body how much milk to make by how frequently he/she may eat. Nursing in public isnt all that bad. I do it all the time and most of the time no one even notices. Ive nursed her while walking through walmart or meijer and no one really even noticed that I was doing it. If you have to feed your baby and that is how your baby eats then you will just do it. Oh by the way my dd is now 5 months and she rarely takes a bottle. She would rather have me than a bottle. She will take a bottle if we are out. I will fix a bottle if we are going to dinner or shopping. She is getting too big for me to walk and nurse her. She is starting to move around too much too. I will nurse her if we are in a restaraunt though.

The paci thing is because of the size of the nipple. Your baby having a paci may also cause a little nipple confusion as well. We tried not to give our dd one but about 6.5 weeks she got sick and I was trying to take her temp and we had a paci thermometer and she wouldnt let go off it. We plan on weaning her from her paci about 9 months old. As long as you do it before a year it shouldnt be as hard to do.

Hope this helps.

Ditto to what the other poster said. You should really wait a month or two before introducing any type of nipple that isn't yours, including a pacifier. Nursing in public with a very little baby is easy....but when they get bigger, it's tough! I was always able to be home for more or less all of ds's feedings, so I never had to that much. Good luck!

Just my experience...I started pumping right away and introduced the bottle in the first week. I know, I know, everyone told us not to do it. My DD had no trouble going back and forth between breast, bottle or paci. I will say she had a perfect latch from the very first day, which the lac. nurse said made the difference. (I was clueless! My baby taught ME what to do:) :) )

I was SO nice to be able to pump a few times a day and let my Mom or husband feed and bond with her.

My favorite pumping story...one night, I was so full of milk I had leaked onto the bed, so I got up to pump. (baby was sleeping soundly) I was SO tired I started the pump, but forgot to attach the bottle to collect the milk. Like 15 minutes goes by and I'm basically sleeping. I start to feel this warm feeling...I look down and I'm literally soaking in milk!! It's everywhere! On me, the glider, the floor) I was bummed to think of like 5 oz of wasted milk:dizzy: :dizzy:

Good luck!

I LMAO at this last post as I can sooooo relate. My first was exclussively bottlefed breast milk due to latch issues and I would be so tired I would fall asleep pumping and wake up dry and abit sore!!!
The the original poster... my dh and your could get together with their hockey soothers!!!! We had a team canada one for ds when he was a newborn...same size. Actually we used an advent one till he was about 1 month most of the time but it was fine when we did use the hockey one. Now we can't find those kind in the bigger size as ds is 8 months.
Anyway, I feel pretty educated on this issue as my first had HUGE latch issues, some that came from giving a bottle too soon. For him, he was struggling to nurse at all and had been born in stress and wasn't as healthy as he should be. We got sooooooooo many mixed messages from nurses regarding supplementing him as no one thought he was getting enough when we would get him to the breast (they were right). I had to use a nipple shield as I have flat nipples and had nothing for him to latch on to...they are a silicon cover that go over your nipples and are similar to bottle nipples but MUCH thinner. In the end we started giving him EBM from an advent bottle (a good choice if you go plan to go back and forth...anything with bags and nipples that look like breast and make them latch as they would on a breast). Anyway, we went home from the hospital planning to try every feed at breast first and then give a bottle but he was so stubborn. It was so much easier to get a milk from the bottle. So in the end after a month of tears and frustration I gave up breastfeeding and pumped for 7 months. I had tons of milk.
My second was born by emergency c-section...in stress in the womb but super healthy upon entry to the world. Breastfeeding was still tough, I still needed a nipple shield and still needed to give him bottles sometimes as he just wasn't getting enough from me (but I had tons again!!!). I was sooo resistant to bottles, so sure that he'd never nurse after having one. As it turned out, he had no trouble at all going back and forth, right from day 3 when we tried for the first time.
We also gave him a soother right away as when he did latch on well he'd stay there for hours,,,suckling, not nursing. He wanted pacification. I had to pump after every feed to ensure my milk came in (something to do with the shields not providing the same stimulation and this supposedly can affect your supply...don't really think I got accurate info on this one seeing as how I had litres of extra milk each week to freeze!!!) By the time he suckled for an hour and I pumped it was time to feed again!!!! Thus the soother.
I guess what my posting proves is that the experts can tell you everything they want but each mom and each babe are different. I am very glad I chose to do things the way I did with both boys as it was best for them and best for me!!!

Thank you so much for the replies! This gives me much more information... I am hoping that it is easy for my baby to breastfeed (as well as myself), because this is something I really feel strongly about... I can definitely go a month or more having my baby ONLY on the breast--it's just a bit down the road, that I would like to be able to have someone else feed him/her if I'm away.

Whiskers :wave:

I bottle fed my dd and I am bf my ds. When ds was born I said I would give Bf a try for atleast 6 weeks then we will see what happens so 6 weeks came and went and I am looking now at going atleast 6 months (ds is now 3 months) It is so nice not to have to worry about cleaning bottles and warming them up in the middle of the night. I am hoping to go till I can give him cows milk and sippy cup. As well I gave both my kids the paci right away and it never affected either of them. Bf is not easy, as I sat on the couch in the middle of the night feeding I would think gosh this is lonely and so unfair dh gets to snore all night. I still can not wait for a full nights sleep but I no longer feel lonely and the nights I wish someone else could feed I just bring ds to bed and feed and we all sleep. As for the public, ya I am not a big on feeding in public either. But most malls have baby rooms to change and feed if you want. I found that pretty neat but usually I just go right after baby is fed and that gives me a couple hours to get shopping done. Good luck to you and your future baby!!