Originally Posted by nannyde:
I've only had a couple of formula babies in the last five years. I think it's been maybe three or so years since I had one.
So when I do the initial interview I tell the parents that the child must be able to eat a full feeding bottle here right before starting care. If they need help with info on nipple confusion or transition to please let their Doc know so they can help hook them up with someone to help.
They just start doing pumped and bottles at home when they are first born and switch the baby back and forth. By the time they get to me they can easily do both.
If a provider WANTS to be involved in transitioning to a nipple then that's a GREAT service to offer. I don't want to offer that. I love the first couple of weeks of havning a new baby. I really cherish that time and so do the other kids. I wouldn't want to add a layer of "learning" onto what the baby already has to learn to be here.
This way there isn't any gray area of "well he did a little"... he's doing better... he did it for Daddy a week ago... It's feed in front of me so I can see how the baby takes the nipple. One feebding tells me everything I need to know. I can tell how well the child does within a few minutes by just watching the suck, swallow, grasp, head movements, breathing pattern, and fatigue. Once I see experienced nipple sucker I'm good to go.
So the provider has the choice to educate themselves on how to transition and offer the service of transition or offer the service where they just receive infants who can readily take the nipple. I offer the latter and have the baby eat in front of me right before starting. If you offer transitioning you should be prepared for a significant amount of one to one care, a high amount of parent contact, and worse case scenario... an infant who does very poorly while in your care until the skill is learned. The older the baby gets the harder the transition in most cases.
I don't think it is, in any way, a good idea to accept a chld who isn't bottle ready! However, I feel like I have a wealth of knowlede I've come across over the years and that it is my job to help educate parents. I wasn't getting in to the issue of whether or not to term the child, just throwing that out there for anyone who the information might be helpful to! I would have absolutely taken the same action as the provider did and would have imparted any BF knowledge I had to offer upon parting ways! That's just how I roll.