On my post, Adoptive Breastfeeding: Some Final Words, a reader left the following comment:

We are adopting a infant or toddler internationally. The things I've been reading suggest babies that have started bottle feeding, to be transitioned with bottles that have nipple similar to the mother's breast. I was wondering what others have experienced adopting internationally?

We adopted a newborn domestically, so I do not have... more

Choosing to breastfeed a baby is a personal choice. There is no “right” or “wrong” decision about whether or not to breastfeed your adopted baby. If you choose to do it, you will face some challenges, but the benefits to your baby will hopefully be enough to make it worth the effort.

If you decide that you want to breastfeed your adopted baby, start looking into it while you are still waiting to be matched. Adoption matches can happen quickly, so you might not have time to order the supplementation... more

If you are considering breastfeeding your adopted baby, you should think about the following issues:

(1) How much support do you have for this decision?

If you are one of those people who truly does not give a @#$% about what anyone else thinks about your decisions, you can skip down to the next issue. However, if you are like the rest of us, you might want to make an honest assessment of how much support you will receive from the people in your life. Adoptive breastfeeding... more

If you choose to breastfeed your adopted baby, you will face many challenges. In some ways, adoptive breastfeeding is the “worst of both worlds.” You have all of the challenges of both breastfeeding and bottle-feeding while missing out on many of the benefits of both. For example, a big advantage of breastfeeding is that you have your child’s meal ready and waiting on a moment’s notice. Since most adoptive mothers do not produce enough breast milk to supply the baby’s nutritional needs, that convenience is... more

There are many good reasons to breastfeed an adopted baby. The most obvious reason is that breast milk is better for a baby than formula. You cannot pick up a parenting book without being encouraged to breastfeed your baby in multiple places. There is good reason for this: breast milk offers many benefits, including the following:

Protects against allergies, asthma, and eczema Provides a variety of flavors based upon the mother’s diet Provides antibodies to protect... more

In Debra Stewart Peterson’s book, Breastfeeding the Adopted Baby, she discusses anything you could possibly want to know about adoptive breastfeeding. If you follow the link to amazon.com, you can see excerpts from the book. This was my “bible” in learning how to breastfeed an adopted baby.

Breast Pumps

Many women are able to lactate by using a breast pump every... more

For those of you who are just looking into adopting, you might be surprised to learn that it is possible to breastfeed an adopted baby. I was absolutely FLOORED when I learned this. I assumed that missing out on this experience was another one of my infertility losses to be grieved.

I learned about adoptive breastfeeding by reading a book about adoption. (I wish I could remember which book it was. I read so many books while I was researching the adoption process.) The author was talking about adopting an infant and... more

Did you know it's possible for a woman to breastfeed a child even if she hasn't given birth to that child? It's true! It's amazing! And it happens all the time.

Technically called Induced Lactation, breastfeeding an adopted child typically works best if the child is an infant when adopted, although it's possible to nurse a child adopted at a slightly later age as long as the conditions are right.

Why bother to breastfeed? Kay Green, an... more

Here's part 1 of this entry.

Kay Green, an adoptive mother who sucessfully breastfed her baby, continues:

I got milk drops 10 days after starting the pumping/herbs routine. By 4 weeks I was getting enough to freeze an ounce a day. By the time she was born I was freezing 2-3 ounces a day.

When she was born I nursed first, 10 minutes each side, switching sides 4 times (YES 45 minutes of nursing) then I would give her 1-2 OZ of formula or donated breast milk in a Lact-aid supplementer. The Lactaid allows the formula to go thru a tiny... more