Nipple confusion

Pumping breast milk in the first few weeks after delivery can be helpful for stimulating a new mom's breast milk production. But before feeding the expressed breast milk to your baby in a bottle, be sure that breastfeeding is well established so as to avoid nipple confusion.

If a bottle is given to a newborn before breastfeeding is solidly established, the baby might develop "nipple confusion", and then prefer to take the bottle instead of the breast. While this is certainly a frustrating situation for a new mom committed to breastfeeding exclusively, nipple confusion does not have to mean an end to breastfeeding.

For those of you who might be "struggling" to produce enough breast milk for your growing infant, sometimes just following a few simple steps can get your breast milk flowing again.