How do you deal with the "the baby just gulped it down" response?

[Song of Joy]

Having never used a bottle, I'm really unfamiliar to the differences when it comes to actual "eating." I keep hearing stories of babies who would cry at the breast and yet when offered a bottle (BM or ABM) they "just gulped it down" like they were starving.

Now I KNOW that these children are most likely NOT starving unless there are big problems involved (the majority of women who say this are not having problems). But I never know how to respond. What do you/would you say?

[Momtwice]

I'd say that's because many bottle nipples flow faster than a breast...(and babies NEED to suck so they will suck a bottle of formula down fast if the nipple holes are too big BECAUSE of the sucking reflex) which is why some babies start to prefer bottles and a mom should be careful about starting a bottle. And a solution is slow flow newborn nipples.

I would express sympathy for having a hard time TRUSTING breastfeeding.

[minkajane]

I always think "And what choice did he have?" There's a bottle dripping formula in his mouth, what else can he do but swallow? And that swallow brings more formula into his mouth, etc, etc.

[wannabe]

There's a kellymom page on this - I think it's "do I really have low supply" (but kellymom is down ATM).

Basically, yes - the mouth fills with milk and they have to swallow.

[Song of Joy]

Followed the trail thru Kellymom and found this article:
http://www.bfar.org/nipples.shtml

It was really good at explaining some of the things already mentioned. Thanks! Keep the responses coming, please!

[timneh_mom]

Yeah, I got that from a friend too, who could not get her babe to latch and would not get help. So she went to formula. She started him on solids around 3 months, because he would "just suck down" the formula, and she said he was still hungry...

[momma2mingbu]

I explain the difference between how a bottle works (milk just drips in there and baby has to keep swallowing) and how the breast works (baby must work to keep the milk coming).

[Song of Joy]

So it seems to me that one of two things is happening, then. This is in relation to the baby that was at the breast, either nursed or cried at the breast, was given a bottle and "sucked it down" but was not dealing with low supply or other real problems (latch, etc.).

1. Baby NEEDS to suck, but is not necessarily hungry. At the breast, "flutter nursing" as I've heard it called (that light nursing that really does not express any milk), satiates that need without adding unwanted milk. But on a bottle, that same type of sucking would produce milk (BM or ABM) in the mouth, so the baby has to swallow and hence takes in MORE milk than he wants. This would cause the mother to think the baby was STILL hungry even after a good nursing session.

2. Baby may not need to suck at the moment, but since the milk is pooling in his mouth, he has no choice but to swallow. The fussing that most likely caused the introduction of the bottle, whatever it may have been about (frustration over nipple differences, etc.), is then determined to be because he "starving at the breast" since he sucked the bottle dry. When in reality, he simply had no choice because every time he swallowed, the bottle introduced more milk into his mouth (causing a cycle of swallowing and more milk to swallow). In a sense, he was "forced" to drink when he really had a different need.

Topics to possibly touch on would be:
1. Trusting one's ability to sustain baby at the breast.
2. Recognizing baby's need to suck when not hungry.
3. How bottles introduce milk differently than the breast.
4. How to feed with a bottle (if she is determined/really needs to) so it functions more like a breast.
5. Babies cannot adequately self-regulate milk intake with a bottle, whereas with the breast, they can adjust their suck to match their need or simply break the latch and milk flow stops.

How am I doing so far? Am I missing anything?

Number 5 does lead me to another question.....do babies not reject the bottle if they are not hungry? If not, why do you think?

[lisac77]

We started my son on EBM at 5 weeks because I was going back to work, but I don't ever recall him "guzzling" the milk like he was starving. Maybe they are using the wrong kind of nipples? We always used the "slow flow" nipples for newborns, which, as far as I could tell, did not drip milk out - the baby has to suck for it.

[ShadowMom]

My response would be "So if you gave her steak and she ate it, would you switch her to an all-steak diet?"

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[AmyY]

One other thing - the baby is having to use her/his tongue to slow the flow of formula from the bottle. This is a different way of using the mouth. Basically the baby is doing everything possible to avoid being engulfed by the formula coming out of the bottle.

It was beyond heartbreaking for me to see my sweet babies nurse for hours and then gulp down their supplement bottles. When I talk to moms dealing with this type of issue I always try to remember to allow space for them to address the feelings of rejection, fear, panic even, that come when the baby appears to be so much more interested in the bottle than in mommy.

FWIW my story on supplementing is long and tedious, but I was able to ditch the dratted bottles at 9 months (Ali) and 10 1/2 months (Anni). I still hate bottles and formula more than just about anything on the planet. There is just absolutely nothing worse than feeling like your baby prefers plastic and corn syrup to you.

And - we're still nursing constantly not to say incessantly at 2 years. You can go through the hell of supplementation and still CLW, you really can!

IMO this is one of the most difficult things about the use of bottles and formula - we spend so much time talking about the risks to health, but the damage to mother's self-confidence and the mother-baby relationship when this "gulps down the bottle" thing happens is really really awful. I suspect it's one of the things the bottle/formula makers count on. Sigh...

[aran]

Originally Posted by AmyY

IMO this is one of the most difficult things about the use of bottles and formula - we spend so much time talking about the risks to health, but the damage to mother's self-confidence and the mother-baby relationship when this "gulps down the bottle" thing happens is really really awful. I suspect it's one of the things the bottle/formula makers count on. Sigh...

YES!!!! This is my experience and belief too.

For me, it took about 3 months of IBCLC prescribed supplementation before I could build an adequate supply to EBF DS. But I never got over the self doubt. I was forever weighing DS, agonizing over every cry ("Is he hungry still? am I starving my poor little baby?"). I still grieve - I get a pit in my stomache - when I recall DS as a newborn sucking down his supplement and falling fast asleep, contentedly. If I were less of a stubborn hardhead than I am, or if I had a less amazing husband than I do, such an undermining of confidence would have led to early weaning.

Also - I think if people tried using a Haberman feeder turned to the lowest setting, they'd get a better (albeit not perfect) idea of whether their baby "needed" more to drink. The nipple on a Haberman doesn't drip, so babies aren't forced to down the whole thing. That's what I used for DS's dreaded supplements and we came through it with a good bf relationship intact.