Yes as it sounds I have my conspiracy theory hat on, only a bit though, it's at a sexy tilt.

The theory...

That babies who are given bottles or pacifiers too early may prefer these to the nipple. In the case of teats, that they are easier to feed from than the nipple which uses more jaw muscle. In the case of pacifiers I have no idea - it provides no milk and I think a baby might notice that.

The facts...

Well the facts are tricky, I have read several articles, and there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. It seems that all the midwives and health visitors are sure it is a huge problem, but a bit of research on some of the more respectable sites on the Internet reveal that it is by no means a proven phenomenon.

Combination feeding...

Many people, including myself have successfully introduced a bottle very early on, in my case within a couple of weeks, the pacifier even sooner. I have seen no evidence of nipple confusion with either of my babies. I have asked others their opinions and overwhelmingly folks have said the same or, that they wish they had ignored the advice to prevent bottle refusal.

What if it's true?

Well if it is true and proven, and certainly even if it does exist it obviously is not a problem for all babies or even a sizable majority, but if it is a problem for some - does that mean we should still heed the advice, are we storing up problems for later?

The Scare tactics...

Are health visitors (in particular) using nipple confusion as a scare tactics to force people to breast feed for longer, to not give in? If this is true it may be that they don't know they are doing this? They follow instructions from above - maybe they really believe it is proven.

The Agendas...

Everyone has an agenda, the baby food companies for sure! This push on breast-feeding (and the little teeny one on BLW) is flushing a hunk of their profits down the pan. But who else has an agenda? Well the NHS of course... they have targets to meet, whether these are self-set to battle obesity, or because of European league tables, I don't know (yet!) but for sure they have an agenda far beyond what is best for us mums. In short, ALL the research I could find was either possibly biased or airy fairy opinionated. I'm not sure I found any 'evidence' at all. Please show me some someone (a friend showed me some interesting stuff about pre-terms and pacifiers suggesting it doesn't exist.)

An Irresponsible Suggestion

I have read on several occasions that formula should not be kept in the house - just in case - if you are breast-feeding. It might make you give in to temptation, offer a bottle, cause nipple confusion, yadda yadda etc etc...I was chatting with my husband about this particular piece of advice a few months ago (the twins were at my parents overnight and we were at the pub getting VERY drunk). It's not only bad advice it, it is downright irresponsible and dangerous. Suppose the worse case scenario - someone lives in a fairly remote location, mum gets seriously ill, perhaps goes out for the evening and gets into an accident. Dad is left at home with no method of feeding that baby, maybe dad can't get to a store, maybe dad can't drive, maybe there is a babysitter there. In underdeveloped countries yes a baby in this situation would possible suffer or worse, but THERE IS NO EXCUSE for a child in the UK to be at risk because of no access to food. It's quite simply ridiculous. I know personally of several mums who fell ill with flu and had to struggle to breast-feed until someone could get formula, and in one case the baby wouldn't take the bottle and mum and baby became pretty dehydrated. It happens.

Weaning off the boob...

I could quote dozens of moms here but I'll give the example of a friend from Play & Stay as it's fairly standard explanation of the issues here... This lady, let's call her Rabina, has an 8 month old, let's call her Preet. She breast-fed Preet for 6 months, that was her personal target - at 6 months she introduced the bottle and was faced with blood-curdling screams and is still trying 2 months later to get her to take any amount at all. She has not spent more than 1 hour away from Preet in 8 months because of this. She needs to go back to work soon. Preet still wakes every three hours for a breast-feed at night. Nuff said.

And if it does exist? so what!

If it does exist and cause some babies to have trouble latching on? Well firstly we need to know how many this affects before we can decide if it's something we need to worry about, but beyond this - what about the benefits of introducing a bottle that have been mentioned above - the sleep for mom (and baby), the safety in case mom suddenly can't feed, dad taking some of the strain, dad (and others) getting to feed and bond with the baby, mom not being able to have a night off, a night out, heck a weekend off (my wonderful parents have the twins for 2 nights a week - I really wouldn't like to be packing my boobs along with all their other stuff you know).

In Conclusion - my thoughts...

I don't believe it. I think it's a scare tactic from those at the top who want to win brownie points for us in European league tables. I think everyone should introduce a bottle (and pacifier if they want) AS SOON AS possible to avoid other problems. Let's not forget the possible prevention of SIDS for pacifier users (that's a whole new post). Introducing the occasional bottle isn't going to tempt a baby from the warm comfort of a breast - come on.