I am surrounded by idiots - HELP.

[boatbaby]

So here’s a doozy…

My friend is in her 2nd year of nursing school. She’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she’s making it through somehow. She has no kids and doesn’t plan on every having any, but is an Auntie to many.

So here goes our conversation (sorry I NEED to vent)
(Quick background, my DS is 4 months old, exclusively BF from the tap, never offered a binkie or bottle and don’t plan on it unless we encounter a situation that makes it necessary. We co-sleep too.)

It starts when I mention that I want to learn to hand express breast milk to make momsicles for his teething.

HER: When are you going to start him on a bottle?
ME: Never.
HER: (in I am a medical professional so I know tone) I would advise you to start NOW, or it will only get harder later. You really need to start bottle feeding him.
ME: Why?
HER: Because otherwise how will you get him to know how to drink from a bottle later?
ME: Why does he EVER need to drink from a bottle?
HER: Won’t you give him milk later?
ME: You mean COW’s milk? No, not until he’s old enough to drink from a cup if at all.
HER: What about juice?
ME: Too much sugar, again by the time we do he will be cup drinking.
HER: How will you give him milk at night then, when he’s older.
ME: From my boob. How else.
HER: He’ll need to have a bottle of milk or juice at night when he is a toddler.
ME: Ok, then he’ll roll over and help himself. I really don’t see a need to give him a bottle ever. I am lucky that I can work from home and always be with him to meet his needs. He can go straight from the boob to a cup.
HER: Where did you hear THAT!?
ME: Several lactation consultants and various LLL readings.
HER: Ooohhhh. Well that explains it. You need to talk to a doctor.
ME: You know, even my pediatrician and midwife both refer all breastfeeding related questions to a LC because they are the first to admit they are not trained in that area at all!
She gives me a strange look and rolls her eyes and the conversation stops there.

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO STUPID!!!????!!????
Help.

[Benji'sMom]

She's just be miseducated, like everyone else. But she doesn't sound too smart. Don't doctors even say NOT to give a bottle at night of milk or juice because it causes tooth decay. I was expecting her to say he'd need a bottle of water, but when she said milk or juice, I was suprised.

[Breathless Wonder]

She makes no sense what so ever!

Maybe some articles from a source she would respect might be useful? Perhaps some writings by someone who is an IBCLC and MD?

If you are up to educating her, that is.

[atomicmama]

I hope she's serious about not ever having kids!

[mirlee]

: Boy does that just bug me!

[Parthenia]

All the things she said, I learned just the contrary in nursing school. She must've been sleeping during her OB classes.

Dr's, nurses, nutritionists, dentists, the billboards in my town, WIC, all advise against giving a child juice in a bottle. Many advise against juice in general.

Maybe what she meant was that if you plan to pump and feed the baby breastmilk in a bottle you should start trying early. If you don't, oh well. Why use a bottle if you have no need to?

[captain optimism]

Well, I know that she's wrong because I was weaned to a cup myself...way back in 1967. :LOL

It is important to introduce a bottle if your baby is going to have expressed breastmilk while you are at work. That's true. Not too early and not too late. But if you are going to be home, why bother?

[Sailmom]

Just another great example of a little information being a dangerous thing. Speaking as a nurse, we are just like any other profession. Really good ones base their decisions on sound research and the latest scientific findings. Others still rely on superstition, hearsay and prejudice. There are physicians like this, scientists like this, heck, even hairdressers like this. Just know that you are doing the best you can for your baby, based on research you have done. And someone who has never had a child, or plans to, has no vested interest in doing any research on childrearing. And I know that MY opinions have changed drastically since the birth of my child.

[jeca]

yeah, what everyone else said. Your not suppose to give them a bottle at bight period, unless it's water(and i don't mean babies). She was sleeping hard during her classes or she has a very poor excuse for a teacher.

[boatbaby]

Thanks to everyone for their support. I needed to vent and I feel better now. It's difficult b/c she is a friend and neighbor but sometimes I feel like she's too hoplessly dumb and it's not worth educating her. Then I think about the patients she'll be consuling one day (she wants to to OB and delivery or peds) and I think I should try to enlighten her for the sake of her patients to be.
Anyhow, big thanks!

[mamangazelle]

Maybe she didn't learn that at school.

I went in a breastfeeding class given by lactation consultants to doctors, mainly peds and ob's (my sis is a ped and made me come by the backdoor).

At one point, a ped asked if it wouldn't be a good thing for all moms to give milk in a bottle a few times a week or more so that babies would not refuse it later on, as she had seen it in her practice. The lc said that it was unnecessary since the child could learn to drink from a cup,..., but even after that explanation, that doc said that she would still advise women to give a bottle once in a while before the baby was too old, because otherwise they risk that the child might refuse it As if avoiding the risk of the baby refusing a bottle was worth risking the nursing relationship... :

[Meiri]

Goddess help her patients if/when she goes into OB, delivery, or peds!

I hope you can manage to educate her.

DS never took a bottle after he had one or two at 2 months old. Survived just fine. DD never had a bottle at all, drinks from a cup just fine....

And suggesting Juice, In a bottle, At night? Her snores probably stopped the entire class from hearing the facts on that little issue.

[Peppamint]

Wow, definitely some miseducation going there. I was going to suggest showing her some research, but if she rolled her eyes (I was visualizing this when you said she said OOOOOH) when you mentioned LCs and LLL, then she probably thinks all pro-bf experts are quacks.

to you!

[chow46]

When I was in nursing school, we were required to take a course with a lactation consultant. This was the first time I had ever met someone who was ebf but I learned a lot from her. She doesn't know what she's talking about. Make it easier to go to a bottle? wth? I've *never* heard that argument. And I've been a nurse for a little while now.