nipple confusion, myth or reality?

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Nipple "confusion" isn't really confusion; baby is anything but confused and realises that the milk comes far more quickly from a bottle than a boob and decides he prefers the former!

Someone - tiktok iirc - said it's not just bottles; some babies even get cup preference!

I think the idea behind the six week thing is that you wait until baby is breastfeeding really well and you're over any troubles - for some this might be less than six weeks, for some, more. I think that's the idea, anyway.

So if baby is loving it and you've no troubles I guess you could try now, but if you're struggling a bit it might be worth waiting a bit longer.

Don't know re: the bottles really; from personal experience ds would only take a bottle of ebm if I was nowhere to be seen and it didn't matter what type of bottle it was but the ebm had to be warm not hot not tepid otherwise the teat would be spat out.

Went onto a cup when I went back to work.

I started my DS on on one bottle of EBM a day at about 3 weeks old. He also had a dummy.He never had any nipple confusion.

I used the TT CTN bottles on the advice on my SIL as she had great problems trying to get her DD to take a bottle until she tried those.

I'm no expert though, just my experience.

If there are problems with the baby's latch then unless it is absolutely necessary to get milk into the baby I would avoid giving bottles to a newborn. A baby that is having a hard time learning to milk a breast effectively will only have more trouble if they are then given a completely different method of getting milk (especially one that is easier). I had real problems with DS after he was born as he couldn't latch properly a lot of the time & in frustration at not being allowed to cup feed in the hospital so gave him a bottle....it was almost the death knell for the breastfeeding as he refused to feed from the breast after that & wouldn't/couldn't latch on at all. Luckily with a lot of support from my local LLL group we turned it around....but I do wonder what would have happened if I hadn't given him that bottle .

If there are no issues with latching & the baby is feeding happily at the breast then IMO using bottles before 6 weeks shouldn't cause too many problems....but 6 weeks is a good time to wait until so your supply is well established as offering bottles can interfere with the whole supply & demand relationship between mum & baby as the breasts won't get emptied at the time the baby receives the bottle (& its the breast being emptied that sends the signal to make more milk).

If you have to/want to give a bottle to a newborn then I would recommend testing the teat before hand (fill it up with water & hold it over the sink)....I only found out after feeding DS that the hospital teats literally allowed milk to pour through them so all DS had to do was swallow - no wonder he simply stopped trying at the breast after that ).

It really can be a problem. When my ds was born I topped up with formula (long story, milk slow to come in after emcs, he lost 15% of birthweight). I started off cup feeding him but this was slow and messy and dh just could not get the hang of it at all. Giving him his extra ounce in a bottle seemed much easier and quicker, he certainly was happy to take the bottle.
The first feed he fed well at the breast, then had a bit of ebm from the bottle. Second feed, fed ok, then finished a whole ounce in a bottle. Third feed, fussed a bit at the breast, then guzzled all that was in the bottle (another ounce and a bit or something). Fourth feed, just played at the breast.
I dumped the bottle and went back to the cup for top-ups (only needed them for a week or two, more because of dented confidence as he started putting on weight the same day he got his first top-up, milk came in at the same time) and we were fine thereafter. It would have been very easy to think that the bottle was the best / easiest option though. If I'd kept offering the bottle I think I'd have stopped bfing within the week.
Ds was a week old at this point, btw.
Sorry this has been a bit of a ramble, have condensed it as much as i could.

The following is from kellymom.com

1. There is no such thing as nipple confusion.

Not true! The baby is not confused, though, the baby knows exactly what he wants. A baby who is getting slow flow from the breast and then gets rapid flow from a bottle, will figure that one out pretty quickly. A baby who has had only the breast for three or four months is unlikely to take the bottle. Some babies prefer the right or left breast to the other. Bottle fed babies often prefer one artificial nipple to another. So there is such a thing as preferring one nipple to another. The only question is how quickly it can occur. Given the right set of circumstances, the preference can occur after one or two bottles. The baby having difficulties latching on may never have had an artificial nipple, but the introduction of an artificial nipple rarely improves the situation, and often makes it much worse. Note that many who say there is no such thing as nipple confusion also advise the mother to start a bottle early so that the baby will not refuse it.