Go read the Disclaimer again. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Seriously.
The second best choice after breastfeeding at the breast is giving the mother's milk not at the breast. Most people think immediately, bottle, but there are a number of other choices, even for pre-term babies, and some very good reasons for at least considering using them.
Artificial nipples given a baby less than a month old are widely recognized as a source of nipple preference, or nipple confusion. Here is one theory regarding why nursing strikes/nipple preference/oral aversion can happen. Helpfully, LLL also supplies some ideas about What to do if a baby won't nurse.
The short form for avoiding nipple confusion is:
Restoring breastfeeding at the breast is often extremely arduous. Better to avoid the problem.
If you do not give a baby anything other than the breast for four months or so, it is quite likely that baby will never accept a bottle. As far as I was concerned, this wasn't a bad thing at all. There can be little temptation to wean a baby -- even a baby on a nursing strike (which nothing completely guarantees against) -- to formula when that baby also will not take a bottle.
Idealism aside, there are occasions when a baby has to be fed not at the breast. There is a great, concise, scientific perspective, with a goal that alternative feeding is a temporary tactic and will be replaced by a return to breastfeeding -- not represent an end to breastfeeding.
Not all artificial nipples are created equal. Women who have had breast reduction surgery typically have great difficulty establishing exclusive breastfeeding; they genuinely suffer from inadequate supply largely as a result of their surgery or, at any rate, the way the surgery was done. An organization devoted to helping these women breastfeed has this to say about which nipples are better than others in terms of avoiding nipple preference.
I chose to use early cup feeding for when I was away from my baby and I might miss a feeding. Here are a couple of detailed descriptions of how to cup feed:
Teddy's Nursing Strike, which made me glad I knew how to pump and hand express
Pumping: the assumed way to get breastmilk for later feeding
Hand Expression: a useful skill, and alternative method
Copyright 2006 by Rebecca Allen.
Created January 31, 2006 Updated June 21, 2006