OK, everyone. I'm prepared to (partially) defer to personal
experience on this issue of getting a clamped-down baby off the
breast by pulling him in towards the breast so that he has to
open his mouth to breathe. I still am hesitant except as a last
resort, since we have no way of knowing how the child will
"remember" this in the distant future, nor what his future
associations with this will be. I have this feeling that my alarm
is not shared by others on the Net. Perhaps this is because I
have had several episodes of shortness of breath, literally
unable to take a deep breath, no matter how hard I tried to
"relax". It is difficult to express how scary this is, so I
cannot imagine doing this to a baby. But then again, I've never
had one clamp his chompers on me! :-/
Want to share this story of future associations. When my youngest
(now 16) was almost 3, we were on vacation at a large water
resort. Joey was having a great time with me in the shallow pool
area, going underwater for a loooong time and popping up
elsewhere. Can you see this coming? We somehow got separated.
While I was semi-hysterical, searching for him everywhere (deep
water???), he had decided that we were going to leave without
him, so he camped out at the park exit, keeping an eye on the
car. (Wherever do kids get these weird ideas?) Anyhow, he had
severe separation anxiety for YEARS afterwards, into 2nd or 3rd
grade, maybe longer. All through 1st grade, I walked him to school and
grandma picked him up after school (and you can almost SEE the school
from our house....).
Judy Knopf in Beer Sheva, Israel