hi there,

i allways found with my kids that newborns seem to like the Nuk nipple the best for some reason it fits nicer in there mouth. and if your planning on pumping for some time just a thought but if you can afford it look into purchasing one of those electric pumps. i used it with my second one and they are SOOOO much better. they are much faster and efficiant. GOOD LUCK

nadine mom to dempsey 6mo and chelsea 3yo

Send the mother out of the house. Have a whole new person who feels 'comfortable' about the process give it a good try. The mother should have friends or support people with her, and maybe a plan to walk around or run an errand or somesuch. The person or people involved in the feeding attempt will also need some support people/adults around them.

If the mother, or if the new person does not feel 'comfortable' or able to do this then they are probably not going to be able to have a good experience with this process.

Decide in advance how long to try, and when the mother will be needed or called in because the baby won't feed. There is a finite time period where the baby will be hungry enough (in theory) to try, but there will also be a time when a young infant will need to have food-- and that will require the mother at this point.

What were the previous methods that didn't work? They should go through what plans they had, and things they tried which they now know will not work.

Sometimes it works to have nursing with a bottle be as similar as possible to what the baby was used to with their mother. Sometimes, things work better when the baby has some minor changes and they aren't really quite as primed for a 'normal' feeding experience. A nipple that is most like a breast will tend to work best because it requires movements to get the milk out that the baby has already mastered. But, it might be worth it to check out other nipple shapes, or with different hole sizes.

It almost always works when trying to get a young infant to accept and tolerate (and learn) a change to minimize distractions; and to be as relaxed as possible. Infants will react to the tension levels and apparent moods of the adults, so it's important that everyone's on the same page in terms of goals and whether they are good for everyone; and in terms of planned actions to try.

It's ok to try and have it not work for a while. It requires some learning, and forces a major disruption on the mother/infant and infant as an individual. Everyone has to learn some new routine, but the infant can't really formulate adult thoughts or communicate in an adult manner so it's a definite challenge.

P.S. At a guess, the main physical barrier to instant success is probably that the new nipple on the bottle doesn't work the way the mother's body does. The baby can try and try but they have to learn slightly new motions and coordination to master a whole new nipple system in order to get food. Also, their body position and head position may have to be slightly different that what they were used to with their mother's breast.

P.P.S. Even when things work, an infant will probably protest so try to acknowledge and accept their apparent feelings on the matter. It's an intangible sort of thing that bears stating directly because it can result in an every so slight change in adult posture which has positive results in the infant's behaviour.

It may be too early yet to be trying. At two weeks, their still getting used to nursing and the mother's milk supply is still adjusting. If possible, I would wait until about six weeks. We had much success with the Avent bottles

Thank you all for the advice . I think we have it now.
craftmom