Manny

We just had our first, a very healthy baby boy (a bit small, but healthy none-the-less). Anyway, he's only 4 days old now, momma is making milk, but he seems to have zero interest in latching on. Every now and again, he'll latch on right away, I think it's happened twice. But for the most part, it's a major struggle that goes on for about an hour at a time until we decide to end it and just pump it out. As soon as the bottle hits his mouth, he's off to the races.

The questions are: How normal is this? Are there babies that just won't take to the breast? and What are some things we could do to expedite the learning curve to latching on to the breast?

We are not going to give up breast milk, but it would be much more convenient to eliminate the middle steps. Any advice and real world anecdotes would be greatly appreciated. I'm not interested in breast vs formula debates, if that's what you want, there are plenty of other questions for you to piss on.

--Thanks.

How common is this? The doc didn't seem too worried about it, but my girl is a bit uncomfortable at times. How long does this last, she's 7 mos and week or two right now.

Was there anything you did that helped? She says it gets hard to hold stuff too. Doc suggested a hand braces to wear at night that holds hands at a 90 degree angle at night. What do you think?