Information Overload: Nipple Confusion

When we found out we were pregnant we were beyond thrilled. We had tried to conceive for a while and it finally had happened, we were going to have our little baby! Later I started to hit the information highway! I read so many books, listened to podcasts, read articles online, pinned way too many things on Pinterest, we attended all of the baby classes we could, AND listened to the advice of so many people in our lives! All this information it is no wonder so many new moms are confused trying to decipher what is important and what they should and shouldn’t do with their child.

One of the main things I kept hearing about was nipple confusion! Nipple confusion is a “condition” in which your breastfeeding baby receives a bottle and/or pacifier and then is no long remembers how to properly latch to breastfeed and may stop being able to breastfeed all together. I wanted to breastfeed so desperately this was one bit of “wisdom” I took very seriously. Much of what I read suggested not providing a pacifier or bottle until your baby was a minimum of 4 weeks but most highly recommended 6-8 weeks or later! With that in mind I vowed our little guy wouldn’t receive either until after he was 2 months old.

This led to probably even more of a difficult time after our son was born. Our son was placed on my chest for skin to skin immediately after birth and we were all shocked that he latched himself within the first 2 minutes (unheard of!). Later we had lactation consultants (LCs) come into our room to check on us a few times. I was told by the LCs that if his latch hurt I was doing it wrong...So when they asked if it hurt the answer was always no. The truth was OF COURSE it hurts some! This was totally new to my body! I went home definitely thinking a few times, what if he is doing it wrong? But he was eating so well and I was so proud of his quick latch I figured it was just me. After a week of feeding him it was HARD. I was so determined to continue but I had moments I was crying because I was exhausted, sick (we both managed to get sick upon exiting the hospital), and the pain seemed like it would last forever.

Many said because he was sick he wanted to soothe more and that I should give him a pacifier and even bottles to give myself a break. I was so torn. I was afraid that if I didn’t give him these alternatives I would become depressed because of the emotional toll it was taking on me (and my husband even!) but if I did give them to him there was a chance that he would end up not being able to continue breastfeeding due to this nipple confusion.

Finally after a couple meltdowns we consulted the pediatrician at his 2 week checkup and she said that nipple confusion is actually pretty rare and that it is most frequently seen in babies who struggled to breastfeed to begin with and given his early ability to latch and extreme desire to soothe by sucking that we should in fact use a pacifier for him and if we wanted we could use bottles too without any issues. I believed our pediatrician but I was also VERY anxious about the possibility of this happening anyway. I researched for a few more days but then I caved. I needed him to have the additional soothing. So at 2.5 weeks my son received his first pacifier happily AND then he took his first bottle from daddy not long after. I was so nervous about him switching back and forth but he had absolutely no problem with it! He was such a champ and it was a huge relief for me.

So hopefully if you are out there struggling for whatever reason to get through those first few months I hope you see that it is quite normal for moms to go through this but also consider ways to make it just a little easier on yourself and your little one where you can. I’m not saying that nipple confusion doesn’t exist but consider your specific child and determine what is best for them at that time as well as you!

An extra note: I highly recommend researching bottles and pacifiers for use too! I ended up landing on the Avent brand, the same brand I use the double electric pump in, and I am so glad I did. There were so many choices for each step of my baby's growth. We started him out on the Avent soothie pacifiers (these are the #1 recommended pacifiers by pediatricians and hospitals) and starting at 2 months (mostly just because I had just bought and sanitized the new pacifiers) we switched him to Avent free flow orthodontic pacifiers which will last him until 6 months but have another step up to 18 months following that. His bottles are also Avent. I thought about doing the glass but stuck with the regular instead. We initially bought Avent bottles not even thinking about the nipple size, the standard natural nipple/bottle sets come with a size 1. So, before giving him those I bought the precursor nipple pack on Amazon that was 2 nipples in size 0 which have a slower flow and thus lowers the concern that he will take to the bottles and only want those due to it being easier to get the milk.