NOTE: Most articles about nipple confusion refer to babies having trouble switching from bottle to breast, but my experience as I have described it below refers to confusion between different kinds of nipples.

Matthew was born via caesarean section so he was taken away for some tests shortly

Matthew was a big boy and it was obvious from his loud cries 10 or so minutes after I nursed him that he wasn't satisfied with whatever he got from me. After 30 minutes of trying to soothe him, my husband and I finally decided to ask the nurses for help. They suggested that he may need formula because the colostrum just wasn't doing the trick. So in comes the nurse with more of those ready to use formulas.

The next day, I asked my husband to take the Avent bottles we have at home so that we can use them while in the hospital. During my pregnancy, I have come across literatures about nipple confusion and have decided that if I use a bottle, I would stick to one kind of nipple only. So I transferred the formula to the Avent bottle and that's when the problem started.

Matthew didn't know how to latch to the Avent nipple. He mouthed it and mouthed it with no success and got frustrated very quickly. So I transferred the formula back to the disposable bottle and all was fine again. Problem solved, right? Not quite. Being that I chose to use Avent even before my son was born, I bought several. If you've gone shopping for baby bottles, you know that Avent is quite pricey. Being a stubborn woman that I am (I guess this is where my son got his strong will from), I was going to make Matthew use the Avent. In hindsight, this was not the best course of action. I have long since then learned that the best way to parent is to respond to my baby's need and make myself fit to him not the other way around, but that's a different topic.

My milk didn't come until 12-14 days after I delivered so the problem continued. When we ran out of the formula from the hospital, and ran out of those disposable bottles they gave us, the problem came back. My husband did his best and purchased a couple of bottles with what he thought was the same nipple that my son was used to, but no, the nipple wasn't exactly the same and Matthew knew it. So he made a few more trips and bought other bottles, but still no success. Matthew mouthed all the nipples and could never quite latch on, but I did learn some tricks.

When Matthew was just waking up and still slightly groggy, he took one of the bottles we have just fine. But when he was completely awake, the problem was the same. And then I noticed that when I give him his pacifier, he knew exactly how to latch on to it. So I resorted to trickery. I pretended I was giving him his pacifier, but as soon as he opened his mouth, I gave him the bottle. It was a success!

Fortunately I only had to resort to trickery for about 2 weeks. My milk finally came. Finally we didn't have to use any bottles at all! Like I mentioned, Matthew never had difficulty latching on to the breast even with all that he had to go through with all different kinds of nipples. Two months later when I was finally itching to get out of the house, I pumped milk and used Avent again. But that time there wasn't any more trouble. Matthew took it like a pro.