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- From: elise@ticipa.pac.sc.ti.com (Elise Wade)
- Subject: Net Wise Sayings on Breastfeeding -- Survey Results
- Message-ID: <1993Jan25.181647.1879@ticipa.pac.sc.ti.com>
- Sender: elise@ticipa.mtc.ti.com (Elise Wade)
- Organization: Texas Instruments
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 18:16:47 GMT
- Lines: 77
-
-
- Well, the responses have slacked off now, so I'm posting the
- promised summary of results. As I read through the responses,
- I realized the questions were not as clearly worded as they
- might have been, so I've reworded them a bit below. I believe
- nearly every response had enough verbage that I have correctly
- interpreted the reponses as if these had been the actual questions.
-
- Responses: 30 (29 moms, 1 dad)
- Babies: 37
-
- 1. My baby prefered a bottle to nursing.
- True: 8
- False: 28
- & 1 baby who switched preferences from breast to bottle.
-
- Of four respondants expressing an opinion as to why their baby
- prefered a bottle, one said because it was easier to get milk.
- The others specifically said ease/speed was *not* a factor in their
- baby's preference for a bottle.
-
-
- 2. I introduced my baby to a bottle before the age
- of three weeks, and as a result experienced
- difficulties nursing. (Introducing a bottle
- caused "nipple confusion.")
- True: 5
- False: 21
-
- Two of the folks who I counted as trues, expressed
- doubts that the nursing problems were due to introducing
- the bottle too early. They thought their problems were
- more due to the fact that their babies were premature &
- just had maturity problems which interfered with learning
- to nurse.
-
-
- 3. I supplemented my baby's nursing with formula,
- and as a result experienced uncontrolled
- decrease in my milk supply. This caused
- me to stop nursing sooner than planned.
- True: 3
- False: 19
-
- Several respondants pointed out that supplimenting would
- be very likely to decrease milk supply since mom's supply
- is mostly a supply-demand function. I did not count those
- who supplemented with the *intention* of decreasing their
- milk supply as true. In all these cases the moms were able
- to control the amount of milk they had available for their baby.
- (I also counted as false one mom who said her milk supply
- disappeared after returning to work. She thought the
- problem was mostly from stress.)
-
-
-
- 4. I did not introduce my baby to a bottle until
- after s/he was 6 weeks old. My baby had
- no problems taking a bottle instead of nursing.
- True: 9
- False: 8
-
- The eight folks who had older babies which had problems
- adapting to a bottle collectively had a *lot* of hassle.
- 7 of them said they would introduce a regular bottle at
- 2 - 3 weeks if they could do it over again. One of them
- experienced failure-to-thrive problems that were made
- much worse by her baby's refusal to accept a bottle.
-
-
- Interestingly, several respondants had *long* philosophical
- defenses of the "net wise sayings" citing experiences of
- friends-of-friends, but found their own experience precisely
- contrary.
-
- Well, I had fun with this. Thanks to everyone who participated!
- Elise.
-