New parents are often concerned about being able to offer their baby bottle of expressed milk, so the mom can have a break and/or ways to soothe a baby with the use of a pacifier. There is so much conflicting information out there about when this should occur. In general, I feel really comfortable offering a baby a bottle after two to three weeks. I think it's perfectly fine to give it at least twice a week, try not to do it more than once a day. If you wait more than three weeks, sometimes the concern is that the baby won't take the bottle at all. If you have a mother that is going back to the workplace, that can be quite a problem. I think around three weeks is probably a target date to start. The pacifier issue is a lot harder to answer. I, personally, don't have that much of an issue with pacifiers. I know a lot of my colleagues would disagree with me, that it does cause what's called "nipple confusion" or "nipple preference" in babies. I think bottles are much more likely to cause nipple preference because of the flow, where babies are doing nutritive sucking; whereas, pacifiers are non-nutritive. It's really to calm and soothe the baby. I look at each case individually. If I have a baby who is doing a beautiful job at the breast, the baby has a high sucking need, the mother's nipples are getting sore; I offer the mother a pacifier. I think it will actually make the breastfeeding more long term than not using a pacifier.