The short answer is “we don’t know”. There is so much information out there about nipple confusion. Some will tell you that if anything other than a breast *touches* your baby’s mouth, he’ll never want to breastfeed again. Others will regale you with stories about how their exclusively breastfed baby had bottles! cups! pacifiers! in the first few hours of life and had no problem switching back to breast. Each baby and situation is different. It’s never a given that your baby will, or will not, develop nipple confusion if he/she has a bottle before breastfeeding has been successfully established.
How Long Does My Breast Milk Stay Fresh?
Breast milk storage guidelines can be incredibly complicated to decipher. With each pump company and breastfeeding website having its own storage and handling recommendations, how's a mother to know which one to follow? Plus, throw in whether the baby is full-term, pre-term, healthy, or in the NICU, and we have quite a confusing situation.
After delving into our lactation consultant guidelines for human milk storage, I think I have the definitive list for you….at least for this year!
Battling and Resolving Excess Lipase in Breastmilk
While it is unknown how common it is for a mother to have excess lipase in her breast milk, causing it to smell or taste soapy, I come across it often enough that I thought it would be helpful to share how to deal with it, from a mom's perspective. Christina Williams was gracious enough to write this article, walking us through her journey battling and resolving her issue with excess lipase and her baby who refused to take a bottle, even when she went back to work. T