Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site geowhiz.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!qantel!lll-crg!seismo!uwvax!geowhiz!martha
From: martha@geowhiz.UUCP (Martha Savage)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Breast Feeding - Help
Message-ID: <314@geowhiz.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Nov-85 13:26:17 EST
Article-I.D.: geowhiz.314
Posted: Sat Nov 23 13:26:17 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Nov-85 05:48:40 EST
References: <868@wdl1.UUCP>
Organization: UW Madison, Geology Dept.
Lines: 53

> My wife and I are due in February, so naturally we are starting to
> look around and see what to get.  Although my wife intends to breast
> feed, I expect that there will be the occasional need for a bottle
> (especially when we wean the baby off the breast eventually).
> 
> What is your experience:  what type of bottle to use?  
> What type of nipple?  (Orthodontic?  Playtex type? Silicone?)

I am still breastfeeding my baby (5 months old).  He has been getting
approximately one bottle a day if I'm away at work.  He's not very
picky--it doesn't matter what nipple or bottle he has.  We usually use
the bottles the hospital used for glucose water and were going to
throw out if we didn't take them.  

> Is it important to get one of those machines for taking milk out of
> the breast and saving it, and if so, which machine?

At first I used one of those machines, but didn't enjoy them at all--
they took a long time to get just a little milk out, and I felt
weird using it--like a cow or something.  And we discovered that
Patrick was just as happy with formula.  So now we just use formula
if I'm away, or me if I'm not.  I sometimes get to feeling very full
if I haven't fed him for 8 or more hours.  But at those times I just
come home and take him out of bed (yes, I work mostly at night so he's
usually asleep when I come home) and he'll eat enough to relieve me
even though he's still asleep.

We were lucky--Patrick is very unpicky, so it didn't matter to him
that we waited until he was 8 weeks old to offer him a bottle, but
others are not so lucky.  It's been suggested before to offer bottles
early on.  Also, he has no allergies to formula.  While breastfeeding
is really wonderful, it could feel slightly burdensome if your baby
would refuse to ever take a bottle and you could thus never go away
for more than 4 hours (or 2 in the first months, as it worked out
for us).  Breast milk is better for them, but I doubt a few ounces
of formula a day is going to hurt him, and it's nice if the father
can get a chance to feed the baby, too.

Good luck.  And don't worry too much about buying equipment ahead
of time.  You have plenty of time for most things--the only thing
you really need right away is a car seat.


> 
> Please help by sharing your experience.  Thanks
> 
> 		Mike Bender

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
-- 
         Martha Kane Savage
U. Wisc. Dept. Geology and Geophysics
{ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!geowhiz!martha